Includ-ed, red europea de educación inclusiva

The European Commission recently published the third annual edition of the Education and Training Monitor giving insights on the evolution of education and training systems across Europe. The Monitor report is based on the latest quantitative and qualitative data, recent technical reports and studies, plus policy documents and developments. While focusing on empirical evidence, each section in the Monitor has clear policy messages for the Member States.

The Education and Training Monitor 2014 supports the implementation of the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020) by strengthening the evidence-base and by linking it more closely to the broader Europe 2020 strategy and the country-specific recommendations (CSRs) adopted by the Council as part of the 2014 European Semester.

incluD-ed highly welcomes the Monitor 2014 report that underlines the strong need for qualifications and competences in order to increase employability of young people, especially of minorities such as young people with disabilities.

In its key findings, the report nevertheless acknowledges that “in higher education, broadening access and reducing dropout rates amongst disadvantaged groups remains challenging. […] [e.g.] The rate of tertiary education attainment is 62.4% lower for individuals suffering physical difficulties […] Only a handful of countries strive to widen participation and boost completion rates amongst disadvantaged groups.”

Next to increasing the quality of education, investment in education needs to also tackle inequalities. Students with disabilities may accumulate multiple disadvantages if they are also concerned by socio-economic and socio-cultural inequalities in their countries that “go well beyond the scope of education and training”, as the Monitor report stresses. This situation may then result in early school leaving and lower school achievement. Therefore these socio-economic and socio-cultural inequalities need to be addressed in parallel in order to tackle poverty, fight discriminations and promote active citizenship. Sound strategies in both areas will reduce barriers to equity and foster inclusion in education.

The report furthermore tries to warn in this regard that “private spending on education risks raising inequalities if student support systems do not include a strong element of targeted support for the most disadvantaged”. (p.25)

incluD-ed wants especially draw attention to a finding of the report that even if laws can protect students with disabilities “from overt forms of prejudice and discrimination”, there exists a complex relationship between cultural resources, learning needs and education attainment. The report defines having a disability as significant risk factor for early school leaving and to not attain tertiary education.  

To tackle socio-cultural inequalities in education and training systems across Europe teachers should be trained, especially in regards to special needs education. The Monitor referring to the 2013 OECD TALIS survey underlines the shortage of qualified or well-performing teachers in the EU. “In only five EU countries (HR, LV, FI, DK and PL) this concerns no more than 25% of the teaching force. A global shortage of qualified teachers has been identified in eleven Member States (AT, BE fr, DK, DE, IT, LU, NL, RO, SI, SK, SE)”. Especially teachers with competences in teaching students with special needs are missing.

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Find more information on its official website. The Education and Training Monitor 2014 (1.96 Mb) is accompanied by twenty-eight country reports, as well as a visualisation tool to evaluate the performance and progress of the Member States in relation to the ET 2020 targets.