Inclusion in education: why hardly any teachers specialize!

Inclusion in education: why hardly any teachers specialize!

Vienna, Österreich - In Austria, the training of teachers for inclusive education is an urgent topic. Since 2015 there has been no independent training for special school teachers. Instead of this, teachers can choose a focus on inclusion, but only a few graduates choose it. According to a parliamentary request, only 17 % of the 1,400 Bachelor graduates in the elementary school area chose this focus in the study year 2022/23. Among the almost 660 master graduates it was just 6 % and in the secondary level, just under 5 % of the almost 1,950 bachelor graduates had a specialization in inclusion. With the 910 master graduates of the secondary level, this proportion was only 2 %. These figures illustrate the low priority that the topic of inclusion in teacher training currently has, reports vienna.at .

The teacher union has been calling for a special school teacher training for a decade for a decade. This requirement is supported by Martin Polaschek (ÖVP), which is in accordance with the government program of the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS, according to which a compulsory module including pedagogy is sought for all teacher students as well as independent teaching training for inclusion and special education. Andreas Schnider, head of the quality assurance council, sees this a qualitatively superior training that benefits the inclusive models.

Current statistics and regional differences

The pressure to improve inclusive education is not only noticeable in Austria. In 2006, the UN General Assembly passed the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UN-BRK), including including education as a human right. Article 24 demands that children and adolescents are not excluded on the basis of disabilities of education. To date, 177 countries have ratified the Convention and undertook to ensure, including education systems, which led to a global discussion about access to education for people with disabilities, such as bpb.de emphasized.

opportunities and challenges in Germany

In Germany, including education is also intensively discussed. Surprisingly, it can be seen that two thirds of the students, who are considered disabled, are accommodated in special schools, which heats up the debate about the overcoming of such segregating structures. Here, too, the goal is to improve the inclusive education system, but the debates are context -dependent. While Nigeria wants to improve access for children with disabilities to the school system, the focus in Germany is on expanding the common learning. The UN-BRK, which has been in Germany since 2009, gives the endeavors to the inclusive formation of additional reprint, such as bpb.de

Inclusion is often only understood as funding for people with disabilities, but the broad concept of inclusion should also include social origin, poverty, gender and other forms of discrimination. In order to create successful learning environments, individual learning paths and financial resources are required. Educational expenses in Germany are low in international comparison, which makes implementation difficult. In addition, the lack of teachers is a challenge that could further tighten the situation in the future.