The National Union of Teachers in the United Kingdom considers the policy of inclusion in UK schools to have been a failure and has called for a halt to the closure of special schools. Based on results from interviews with teachers, children, and parents, the union considers the policy of educating all children in the general education environment to be potentially harmful, according to an article by Tony Halpin in the London Times.
The National Union of Teachers dramatically reversed decades of support for “inclusion” and demanded a halt to the closure of special schools. It called on the Government to carry out “an urgent review of inclusion in policy and practice”.
The union issued a report by academics at Cambridge University, which suggested that inclusion was harming children with special needs, undermining the education of others and leaving teachers exhausted as they struggled to cope with severe behavioural and medical conditions.
Almost a year ago, as reported here, Baroness Mary Warnock reversed fields and raised questions about whether inclusionary practices were universally beneficial. Baroness Warnock, who had championed inclusion for many years, published an article in which she raised doubts about it. She told the BBC (UK)
This ideal of inclusiveness “springs from hearts in the right place” but she describes its implementation and the consequent moving of pupils out of special schools as a “disastrous legacy”.
Governments must come to recognise that, even if inclusion is an ideal for society in general, it may not always be an ideal for school.
Statements attributed to people affiliated with the National Union of Teachers are quite strong, reminding me of the over-reach I have heard coming from supporters of full inclusion. I hope that this does not forebode an extreme swing of policy. We need neither full inclusion nor exclusion.
Link to the Mr. Halpin’s story.
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