Inclusion and education

FIGURE 3.11: 
The Republic of Moldova and Serbia have made rapid 
progress in moving children with disabilities out of 
special schools
Percentage of children with disabilities in education who 
attended special schools, selected countries, 2005/06–2015/16
0
20
40
60
80
100
CEE/CIS
Latvia
Serbia
Rep. 
Moldova
Slovakia
%
2005/06 2007/08
2015/16
2009/10 2011/12 2013/14
Note: 
CEE/CIS: Central and Eastern Europe Commonwealth 
of Independent States.
Source: 
Based on the TransMONEE 2019 database.
FIGURE 3.12: 
A move towards deinstitutionalization began in 2005 
but progress is slow
Rate of children in residential care at the end of the year, per 
100,000 population aged 0–17, 1990–2015
0
400
600
200
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
1,600
1,800
C./E. Europe, 
Caucasus, 
Central Asia
Georgia
Rep. Moldova
Czechia
Kyrgyzstan
Ukraine
Lithuania
Russian Fed.
1990
2000
2005
1995
2010
2015
Children in residential care per 100,000 population aged 0–17
Source: 
Based on the TransMONEE 2019 database.
63
C E N T R A L A N D E A S T E R N E U R O P E , C A U C A S U S A N D C E N T R A L A S I A

---

In 2018, 76% of the variation among 15-year-old 
students in countries of the Organisation for 
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was 
observed within schools and 24% between schools.
The same median value was observed for countries and 
territories in the region. While they did not match the five 
Latin American countries that had the lowest index values, 
Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia were the least inclusive 
education systems in the region; their values matched 
those of Indonesia and Thailand. By contrast, three 
education systems in south-eastern Europe, those of 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo
4
and Montenegro, were 
the most inclusive on this definition, matching the index 
value of Scandinavian countries (
Figure 3.13
). However, it 
is important to note that, for instance, in Montenegro in 
2018, the out-of-school rate among the poorest youth of 
upper secondary school age was 36%, which means the 
index value is overestimated, as it does not take these 
marginalized populations into account. The index also 
does not take into account segregation along ethnic lines.
The second measure of inclusivity reported by PISA tries 
to capture peer effects. The isolation index measures 
the probability that an average student from one group 
will be in contact at school with members of another 
group. It ranges from zero (no segregation) to one 
(full segregation). A variant of the index measures the 
probability of disadvantaged students (say, from the 
bottom 25% in terms of economic, social and cultural 
status) being exposed to high-achieving students. In 2018, 
the average value of the index of disadvantaged students’ 
isolation from high-achieving students in reading in OECD 
countries was 0.67, which means a typical disadvantaged 
student in terms of socio-economic status had a 
16% chance of being enrolled in the same school as a high-
achieving student, while the likelihood would have been 
25% if both populations were randomly mixed in schools 
(OECD, 2019b). The same median value was observed for 
countries and territories in the region. However, Bulgaria, 
the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia had among 
the world’s highest values of the index, which means 
disadvantaged students were concentrated in schools 
with few high-achieving peers. By contrast, Estonia and 
Kosovo
4
had low values of the index (
Figure 3.14
).
One explanation for the significant differences in index 
values across countries and territories in the region 
may be that students in some countries are more likely 
to make up for their disadvantage to reach a high level 
of achievement. On average in OECD countries, 11% of 
students from the bottom quartile of socio-economic 
status scored in the top quartile in reading. In Croatia, 
Estonia, Kazakhstan and Kosovo,
4
the share was higher 
than 15%, while in Bulgaria it was 6.5% and in Hungary it 
was 7.7% (OECD, 2019b).
A third measure concerns the extent to which social 
diversity at the school and country levels mirror each 
other. The countries with the lowest degree of social 
diversity within schools – in other words, displaying the 
highest levels of social segregation – were Albania and 
Slovakia; the latter had the second-highest value of all 
countries that took part in the 2018 PISA. The values 
of Albania and Slovakia were twice as high as those of 
Croatia and North Macedonia.