The Government announced today that the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education “has found evidence for a rethink of the local education structures impacting on inclusive teaching and assessments.”

The report calls for a “radical mind shift” from a charity-based model, which leads to dependency, to a human rights approach.

The report also says that moving forward it is recommended that:

• There is a national discussion on the concept of inclusion, followed by a legislative and policy review.

• Support is re-focused to increase the capacity of colleges and schools to meet the needs of all learners.

• A national training body is established to ensure the development of a skill for educators.

• Support to schools is provided to develop a curriculum to engage all learners while using evidence based assessment.

• Evidence based teaching and learning approaches that meet diverse needs are used.

• Self-review at all system levels should be promoted.

The external audit by the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education was conducted on the local system to analyse the strengths and weakness of the structures, as well as to provide feedback for future policy.

The report was presented earlier today to the media at a press conference and published online for download.

In November 2013, the Agency was approached by the Education Ministry to conduct a review of the system in order to assess the current landscape.

The report states that the Maltese structures in place for inclusive present difficulties for stakeholders in a number of areas, specifically that some system factors promote an integrative approach for some learners, rather than an inclusive approach for all learners.

The report also states that there is a need to develop a long-term approach to policy-making to reduce fragmentation, with clear roles and responsibilities while providing support at all levels. Continuous development and support to stakeholders, including training, up-skilling and legislative changes, are among the main recommendations of the report.

Inclusion is a whole-school approach and the report recommends that all children become the responsibility of all those running the schools and teaching the children.

The report recommends that Heads of schools, teachers and LSAs are given ongoing training in inclusive education so that all children will be reached and their academic and social learning is improved.

The Ministry will be consulting about the findings of this document with a number of stakeholders in the coming weeks.

The public’s feedback on this document can be sent on feedback.mede@gov.mt by the end of March 2015.

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