Publication
Reflections on inclusion in the Irish education system
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- 1. Introduction
- 2. Inspection – a focus on inclusion
- 3. Special educational needs – towards an inclusive vision
- 4. Access – admission policies in an inclusive system
- 5. Specialist provision – special classes and inclusion
- 6. Inclusion – the importance of a positive school community
- 7. Attendance – the link with high-quality, responsive teaching
Traditionally, inclusion in the context of education tended to be about ensuring that children with special educational needs could access education in mainstream schools alongside their peers. While this is an important aspect of inclusion, more recent understandings of inclusion take account of how children and young people are served in relation to other aspects of diversity such as ethnicity, socio-economic background, culture, membership of the Traveller and Roma communities, language, religion, gender and sexual orientation. Inclusion is now increasingly seen as a process designed to increase the engagement of each child and young person in their learning, build the capacity of all schools and settings to create welcoming cultures and communities and, at a system level, reduce exclusion within and from education.
Inclusion and quality are fundamentally intertwined concepts. An inclusive system is one where all children and young people can access supportive, engaging and appropriately challenging learning experiences that enable them to have daily life-enhancing encounters and support them to progress through the stages of the education system and fulfil their potential ( 1 ).
Inclusion, therefore, may be seen as an ‘on-going process aimed at offering quality education for all while respecting diversity and the different needs and abilities, characteristics and learning expectations of all children and young people’ ( 2 ). This perspective is underpinned by a vision that all children have a right to access high-quality learning experiences and a belief that it is the responsibility of educators, schools, school communities and the education system more broadly to educate our children and young people in the most inclusive environments possible.
The Code of Practice for the Inspectorate ( 3 ) commits inspectors, through their evaluation and advisory work, to improving the learning experiences and learning outcomes of all children and young people, and to ensuring that they receive the best education possible, in accordance with their potential and learning needs. This commitment is also reflected in a specific focus on inclusion in the Inspectorate’s work programme during 2023-2024. During that period, the Inspectorate evaluated and reported on provision for children with special educational needs in mainstream schools, special classes attached to mainstream schools, special schools and in a range of settings for young people who are following alternative educational and training pathways such as the Youthreach programme. This prioritisation has resulted in a range of thematic inspections during 2023-2024 that have had a particular focus on inclusive practices. These include inspections of education provision for children learning English as an additional language ( 4 ), inspections of education provision for children from Ukraine ( 5 ), inspections of the quality of provision for children participating in the summer programme 2023 ( 6 ), and inspections of education provision in early intervention classes for children with autism ( 7 ).
The reports arising from these inspections span education provision from early years education through primary and post-primary and include settings for young people who leave mainstream school early.
Inspection findings and the related thematic reports reflect many positive advances in education to support high-quality outcomes and experiences for children and young people. They also highlight areas where the system needs to do better to ensure that all children and young people have access to high-quality education within communities that respect diversity and the differing needs, characteristics, and abilities of all their members. Provision for inclusive education must be supported and monitored on a regular basis8 at both the individual education setting level and system level to ensure that barriers impeding the child or young person’s right to access and participate in an education appropriate to their needs and abilities are eliminated.
This chapter reflects on provision for inclusion in the Irish education system with reference to several themes – many of which are connected to the inclusion of children with special educational needs. A focus on inclusion will continue to be part of the Inspectorate’s annual programme of work for 2024-2025 and will be expanded to take account of other aspects of inclusion, such as how children and young people from Traveller and Roma communities and those from areas of socio-economic disadvantage, are provided for in our system. The aim of this focus of inspection and reporting is to provide a grounded insight, based on inspection findings, into the state of inclusive practices and to inform the future direction of policies, provision and practice.
Image: Inclusion 1
Internationally, the idea that all children and young people can and should be educated together, began to influence legislation and policy with the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act 1975 ( 9 ) in the United States of America and the Education Act 1981 ( 10 ) in the United Kingdom. In 1994, the Salamanca Statement articulated the principle that ‘all children should learn together wherever possible regardless of any difficulties or differences they may have' ( 11 ). It concluded that ‘regular schools with [an] inclusive orientation are the most effective means of combating discriminatory attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building an inclusive society and achieving education for all' ( 12 ).
Since then, achieving an inclusive education system where every learner matters and matters equally
( 13 ) and where all children and young people are ‘provided with meaningful, high-quality educational opportunities in their local community, alongside their friends and peers’( 14 ) has become a guiding principle for many education systems ( 15 ). Fundamentally, an inclusive education is about participation, engagement and benefit.
During the 1970s and 1980s, provision for children and young people with special educational needs in Ireland developed in parallel with mainstream educational provision. As recently as 1991, the Irish State argued that ‘because of demographic and geographical features in Ireland, it was not always possible to provide a high-quality service for all children with special needs in an integrated setting' ( 16 ).
In the context of some of this litigation, the State also argued that some children were, by virtue of their needs, ineducable ( 17 ). However, litigation by parents of children with special educational needs required the Government to reconsider its approach to educational provision. Two landmark cases were pivotal in shaping Ireland’s approach to inclusion: O’Donoghue v Minister for Health (1993) and Sinnott v Minster for Education (2001) ( 18 ). The O’Donoghue judgement interpreted, for the first time, the constitutional right to an education and stated that education ‘includes giving each child such advice, instruction and teaching as will enable him to make best possible use of his or her inherent or potential capabilities.’ ( 19 ). This position was reinforced in the Sinnott judgement, and arising from an appeal against the Sinnott judgement (20 ) the Supreme Court defined the scope of the right to education as extending to the age of eighteen. Arising from these cases, the State was obliged to recognise that children with special educational needs had a ‘right to receive an appropriate education based primarily on their learning needs rather than their medical needs, which had traditionally been the case.’ ( 21 )
The publication of the Special Education Review Committee (SERC) report in 1993 was a watershed in the evolution of national policy and provision for special education. This report articulated an inclusive vision for the education of children with special educational needs in Ireland. It called for ‘as much integration as is appropriate and feasible with as little segregation as is necessary ( 22 ). The SERC report was followed by the Education Act 1998, which remains a very important legislative foundation for Irish education. The Act proposed a vision for education that was fundamentally child-centred and affirmed that educational inclusion is about meeting the needs of all children and young people, including those with special educational needs, those at risk of disengagement from education, or those who may struggle to access education.
The Education Act 1998 stipulates that it is not just about access to education but access to an appropriate education. This is specifically stated, for example, in the objects of the Act that include the provision of ‘a level and quality of education appropriate to meeting the needs and abilities’ of people resident in the State ( 23 ). It is also clearly articulated in the function of the Minister to ensure that there is made available to a person with special educational needs ‘support services and a level and quality of education appropriate to meeting the needs and abilities of that person.’ ( 24 ).
Since its enactment, the Act has provided the context and enabling framework for other important legislative and regulatory developments that have paved the way towards a more inclusive system
( 25 )
These include:
| The establishment of the National Educational Psychological Service (1999) | Establishment of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) in 2003 | |
| Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 | The Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act 2004 | |
| The Primary Curriculum Framework (2023), the Framework for Junior Cycle (2015) and Key Competencies in Senior Cycle (2024) | The establishment of the National Council for Special Education (2004) | |
| The Education (Welfare) Act 2000 | Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) 2005 |
In the international context, the ratification of United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities by Ireland in 2018 was another important milestone in the development of educational provision. This convention, a legally binding instrument on the State, recognises ‘persons with disabilities as rights holders with a claim to the right to education without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunities.’
Importantly, it situates the right to inclusive education within the overall right to full societal inclusion and equal opportunities and calls on States to ‘consult with and actively involve persons with disabilities, including children with disabilities, through their representative organisations, in all aspects of planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of inclusive education policies.’ General Comment No. 4 on Article 24, issued by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, provides detailed guidance on implementing the right to inclusive education as outlined in the Convention.
It emphasises the need for transforming educational systems to accommodate all learners, ensuring accessibility, participation and achievement without discrimination. It also makes explicit the link between inclusive and high-quality education by highlighting that educating children and young people with special educational needs in inclusive environments ‘leads to an improvement in the quality of education as it becomes more person-centred and focused on achieving good learning outcomes for all children.’
Significant progress has been made towards realising the vision of an inclusive education system first articulated in the SERC report and reinforced in the Education Act 1998 and landmark court rulings. Supporting the successful implementation of this vision, and further embedding its fundamental principles, are important priorities for the Inspectorate, for the Department of Education and for the wider education system. The Department of Education Statement of Strategy ( 26 ) commits to supporting the provision of high-quality education and to improving learning experiences to meet the needs of all children and young people. The Statement of Strategy also highlights the importance of ensuring equity of opportunity in education and supporting each child and young person to fulfil their potential.
Image: Inclusion 2
The vision statements of many schools contain aspirations to create an inclusive community. These are, of course, in line with the legal obligations on schools and reflect broader education system aspirations regarding inclusive education. However, inspectors’ engagements with schools and parents during inspections indicate that there can be incongruity between the aspirations contained in mission statements, the content of admissions policies and the reality that some parents and young people experience when they begin the process of enrolling in their local school.
The Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 requires schools to prepare and publish an admission policy that includes a statement that the school will not discriminate in its admission of a student to the school on specified grounds ( 27 ). Most schools comply with these obligations. However, a review of enrolment policies in a sample of schools shows that some schools are inserting inappropriate clauses in their admission policy that actively discourage parents from applying to a school, or preclude the enrolment of children and young people because of their cognitive profile. This review found admission policies for special classes in mainstream schools that require written evidence from a multi-disciplinary team that the young person ‘is capable of integration into mainstream classes’, or policies that reserve the right of the school to refuse to enrol young people in a special class based on their potential behaviour.
Since at least 2014, a guiding principle of education policy is that ‘all students, irrespective of special educational need, are welcomed and enabled to enrol in their local schools’ ( 28 ).Ten years on, there is still some work to be done to ensure that the enrolment policies of all schools, and their enactment, reflect the inclusive intent of our legislation and policy. There is an onus on everyone involved in the work of education to ensure that all children and young people see that they are indeed welcome to enrol in, attend and benefit from the care and education provided in their local school.
While the education system aspires to be inclusive, the growth in specialist provision in the system presents a challenge to the successful realisation of this vision. The number of early intervention classes for children with autism has increased by seventeen percent since 2019 ( 29 ). The expansion of special class provision is even greater in the primary sector, where special classes for children with autism increased almost six-fold between 2010 and 2022 ( 30 ).
Inspection findings provide some insights into the reasons for this growth. As part of an evaluation of early intervention classes for pre-school children with autism ( 31 ), inspectors engaged with sixty-five parents of children attending these classes. Almost all those parents viewed placement in an early intervention class as the ideal pre-school placement for their child owing to the small class size and the favourable adult-child ratio ( 32 ). The parents also indicated their clear preference for their child to continue in a special class in primary school ( 33 ).
Such findings are consistent with the outcomes of the consultation process that informed the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) policy advice ( 34 ).Parents who engaged with this process reported that, in their view, a special class placement was the best educational placement for their child for a range of reasons including access to appropriate education and care from teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs). These perspectives are echoed by many other stakeholders, such as teachers and school leaders, who reported that specialist provision, with enhanced resources and perceived greater knowledge and expertise among teachers, is, in their opinion, the best placement for children and young people with more complex special educational needs ( 35 ).
There is a very evident strategic challenge in reconciling policies for special classes in the system with provision for learners with special educational needs through inclusive models of support. The mission to achieve an inclusive education system, espoused by many, and the continued growth in specialist provision within that system, poses a challenge. To achieve coherence in our strategies for inclusion, all system participants must work together to redevelop a clear and coherent vision for inclusion in the Irish context. This vision should take account of relevant national and international developments, including Ireland’s commitments under article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
To achieve what the UNCRPD terms the ‘progressive realisation’ of an inclusive system, the vision for the Irish education system should articulate the benefits of such a system, where all children learn together. Importantly, the vision will need to address the place of special class provision within an inclusive system. The engagement of key stakeholders, including parents, children and young people, the political system, teachers, early years educators and the public, will be critical to the successful redevelopment of this vision and system.
An environment where all children and young people feel welcome and respected, where they are engaged and where they experience a sense of belonging to the wider school community, is a foundation of inclusion. This, fundamentally, is about respect for diversity according not only to special educational needs, but also, among other things, gender, ethnicity or race, language, health status, economic status, religion and lifestyle' ( 36 ).
Overall, inspection findings indicate that most schools and settings have good or very good measures in place to create welcoming environments for children and young people. This finding is consistent across inspection types. For example, the nine community training centres and centres for education inspected in 2023 very successfully created warm and welcoming environments for the young people enrolled in them. In many lessons observed during inspections, the relationship between young people and their teachers was positive and encouraging and the atmosphere was relaxed and productive. Almost all teachers observed during inspections demonstrated kindness and respect towards young people. These welcoming learning environments are important in creating truly inclusive environments in our schools and settings.
Attending school regularly is crucial to ensuring that a child or young person has the best chance of success. Conversely, poor attendance levels are associated with lower outcomes, more restricted educational pathways and limited opportunities to progress to further education, training and the world of work ( 37 ). Internationally, the OECD ( 38 ) notes that school attendance has been significantly and negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the UK, researchers have argued that the pandemic has altered the social contract between schools and society fundamentally, and that one of the most notable casualties of this has been regular school attendance ( 39 ).
These concerns are reflected in Ireland in the most recent data provided by the Tusla Education Support Service (TESS) ( 40 ). For example, over a quarter of all primary-school pupils and over one-fifth of all post-primary students missed twenty school days or more in the 2022 2023 school year. Of particular concern is the fact that forty-two percent of primary-school pupils and thirty percent of post-primary students in schools with the highest levels of disadvantage ( 41 ) missed twenty school days or more. These concerns are also reflected in inspection reports from settings that cater for young people on alternative educational pathways, such as community training centres ( 42 ).
The Irish education system has been proactive in addressing this challenge. In the 2023-2024 school year, Tusla, in collaboration with the Department of Education, conducted a National School Attendance Campaign designed to promote school attendance. As a further support to the campaign, the Department of Education provided a grant to schools to promote and support regular school attendance. The published guidance ( 43 ) on the use of this grant advised schools to target this additional funding to reach individuals and groups at risk of educational disadvantage because of poor attendance.
An important message in this guidance is that a young person’s attendance at school is linked to the extent to which they feel welcomed and included in the school community and the extent to which they find classroom experiences engaging, interesting and relevant. This resonates with one of the core features of inclusive education – a learning-friendly environment ( 44 ).
The importance of a responsive, positive approach to promoting school attendance that acknowledges improved attendance patterns and, at the same time, avoids blaming the child or young person for being late or absent, has been reflected in inspection findings. In engagements with inspectors during the evaluation of Home School Community Liaison Coordination ( 45 ), children and young people reported that attendance strategies that placed too much emphasis on sanctions did little to promote their attendance at school. Inspectors also found attendance strategies that placed particular emphasis on extrinsic rewards such as prizes for children and young people for attendance. In their engagements with inspectors, some young people reported the limited value of these extrinsic motivators in encouraging them to attend school ( 46 )
It is not yet apparent that strategies to promote attendance, particularly in schools where the attendance of children and young people is a cause for concern, place sufficient emphasis on the critical link between high-quality, responsive, teaching and consistently good school attendance.
Image: Inclusion 4
Inclusive education requires differentiated or personalised learning programmes; that is, an educational response that is flexible enough to meet the child’s needs, rather than the child having to fit the programme ( 47 ).
Effective assessment practices are critical to providing differentiated, personalised learning experiences and, accordingly, are critical for high-quality, inclusive education. Assessment is the process of gathering, recording, interpreting, using and reporting information about a child or young person’s progress and achievement in developing knowledge, skills and attitudes ( 48 ). When used effectively, assessment information supports the teacher to identify and celebrate the child or young person’s current learning and to plan the most appropriate activities to enable them to progress to the next stage in their learning.
At a system level, the curriculum frameworks promote flexible, inclusive approaches to assessment. For example, in the Aistear Framework, observational assessment is used to understand each child’s interests, strengths and needs, aiding in planning personalised learning experiences. The Primary Curriculum Framework promotes formative assessments, like quizzes, peer reviews and self-assessments for individualised feedback, as well as summative assessments, such as termly tests, to evaluate children’s learning at specific points. The Junior Cycle Framework involves diverse assessment methods to support personalized learning, including formative assessments for continuous feedback, summative assessments for end-of-period evaluation and classroom-based assessments (CBAs) for holistic assessment through projects and presentations.
Findings from inspections of provision for children with special educational needs in mainstream primary schools indicate that, of the seventeen schools inspected, just over one third had effective assessment practices in place ( 49 ). Children in these schools were assessed using a broad range of strategies including diagnostic tests, running records, screening tests and self-assessment logs. Teachers analysed assessment data carefully and used the information to establish targets and to plan programmes of learning for the children. Importantly also, children were able to use self-assessment strategies to reflect on their own learning. Where this happened, they had better ownership of their learning and were confident in asking for teacher support, when required.
In two-thirds of the seventeen primary schools inspected and in most of the twelve post-primary schools inspected, assessment practices needed to be improved ( 50 ). A common weakness in those schools was that assessment outcomes were not used to inform learning targets and, as a result, targets for children and young people with special educational needs were too general and broad. This impacted negatively on the quality of the learning activities and experiences that the young people engaged in. A related area for improvement was the monitoring of student responses to the various interventions provided in support settings and the adapting of teaching approaches accordingly.
These findings in relation to the quality of assessment in mainstream primary and post-primary schools reflect a similar finding in an earlier Inspectorate report on Junior Cycle implementation. The latter report identified a need for schools to use assessment regularly for formative purposes, to support, guide and improve teaching and learning. It also advised schools to develop students’ capacity for self-assessment and peer-assessment ( 51 ).
Findings in relation to assessment practices in special schools were more positive. In most, but not all, of the thirty-one special schools inspected in 2023, there were agreed whole-school approaches to assessment and assessment was linked clearly with brining about improvement to teaching and learning. Most teachers in special schools used a good range of appropriate assessment strategies to assess the young people’s baseline skills, knowledge and understanding. Teachers also used the information from assessments to establish priority learning targets and they assessed the progress of the children and young people in meeting those targets regularly.
The differences in the quality of assessment practices between mainstream and special schools may indicate that teachers in special settings have acquired a knowledge and expertise in assessment that is not yet developed as fully by their peers in mainstream schools or in settings for young people on alternative educational pathways. There is potential for teachers in mainstream schools to learn from assessment practices in special schools. The Department of Education Special Education Section is running a Towards Inclusion programme currently. This programme is designed to develop synergies, through communities of practice involving clusters of mainstream and special schools, to foster effective teaching approaches for children and young people with special educational needs. This programme could explore usefully how mainstream schools and settings for young people on alternative educational pathways could learn from assessment approaches in special schools.
Establishing such synergies is an important step in supporting all schools to develop and implement comprehensive, evidence-based, whole-school assessment policies that are responsive to the individual needs and capabilities of the children and young people attending them. For a school to be truly inclusive, there is need for teachers to ensure that learning activities are appropriately challenging for all children and young people in the class and that the activities enable them to experience success. Achieving this involves teachers planning learning activities that contain varying levels of challenge and providing a variety of tasks appropriate for the range of strengths, interests, needs and abilities of the children and young people in the class. This is referred to as differentiation and is a teaching skill that requires careful planning, good use of assessment information and a capacity to draw on a range of different teaching approaches. Supporting all teachers to develop and refine their skills in this area is a further priority in the development of a high-quality, inclusive education system.
There is a clear emphasis on skill development in the Aistear Framework in the early years, in the Primary Curriculum Framework and in the Junior Cycle Framework. Skill-based learning is also featuring prominently in the forthcoming redeveloped Senior Cycle framework. For example, Aistear emphasises play-based learning and physical activity. This approach is designed to foster cognitive, social and emotional growth through child-led play and aligns play-based activities with educational goals. Similarly, kinaesthetic learning, involving physical activities and hands-on experiences, is designed to engage children and enhance their understanding of concepts through real-world applications. Developing gross motor skills is also seen as crucial for children’s physical development and overall health, with structured play activities like obstacle courses and outdoor activities such as running, jumping, and climbing, seen as central to early learning and care programmes.
As children progress to primary school, the Primary Curriculum Framework places a similar emphasis on skill development. Play-based learning is an effective strategy for developing skills in areas such as language and literacy. In addition, skills of applying and problem-solving, communicating, reasoning, and understanding and connecting, are the foundation for learning in Mathematics. As young people transition to the Junior Cycle, the framework continues to emphasise a skill-based approach, focusing on eight key skills (managing myself, staying well, communicating, being creative, working with others and managing information and thinking). These skills are integrated across all subjects and designed to provide young people with the necessary skills to engage in further education, the world of work and ultimately to fulfil their potential.
Currently, the extent to which teachers emphasise skill development in their teaching, learning and assessment approaches varies. Inspection outcomes from inspections of early intervention classes for pre-school children with autism ( 52 ) found that many of the children had well-planned opportunities to develop social and emotional skills and functional skills for daily living. However, these inspections also found an inappropriate emphasis on the development of literacy and numeracy skills aligned with the Primary School Curriculum. This practice led to insufficient opportunities for young children to acquire age and stage-appropriate skills and concepts through exploration and play. This finding reflects a finding in an Inspectorate report on Junior Cycle implementation that identified a need for schools to develop students’ capacity for self-assessment and responsibility for their own learning ( 53 ).
In special schools, there were many examples of learning activities designed to promote the development of children’s skills in communication, literacy, numeracy and their overall social skills and ability to self-regulate. Effective strategies for skill development, such as community-based learning experiences, were also used in most special schools.
In inspections of settings for young people on alternative pathways ( 54 ), the learning programmes provided a broad range of courses to develop practical life skills. These courses included catering, woodwork, digital skills, the driver theory test and health and safety courses. Inspections highlighted the critical importance of also developing, in a planned and systematic way, the literacy and numeracy skills of young people on alternative pathways. Many of the young people following the Youthreach programme experienced challenges with literacy and numeracy skills indicating that a more effective means of developing these critical gateway skills was required ( 55 ).
Inspections in primary and post-primary schools indicate that there is scope for placing greater emphasis on skill development at both levels. On the journey towards inclusion, it would be valuable to consider the extent to which primary and post-primary schools have made the paradigm shift from traditional, homogenous approaches to teaching, learning and assessment towards developmental, capacity-building and competency-based approaches. Developmental, capacity-building approaches acknowledge that progress and mastery happen at a different pace for each child and young person and afford them well-planned opportunities to develop their skills incrementally.
Primary and post-primary schools receive an additional teaching allocation to support them to meet the needs of children and young people with special educational needs who are in mainstream classes but require additional support. Data from the department’s Special Education Section shows that, at the end of the 2023/24 school year, there were nine thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven (9,727) special education teachers in primary schools and four thousand eight hundred (4,800) special education teachers in post-primary schools ( 56 ).
During inspections of provision for children and young people with special educational needs in mainstream schools ( 57 ), inspectors observed some very good quality teaching by special education teachers. The most effective teaching and learning in support settings was informed by the strengths and interests of the children and young people and, most importantly, clearly aligned to their identified needs. The learning activities were based on targets that were informed by assessment and were regularly reviewed and adapted.
A second feature of very good practice was close collaboration between special education teachers and class teachers (primary) and subject teachers (post-primary). When this happened, special education teachers and class teachers ensured that the learning activities provided to a child or young person in a support class were closely aligned to the activities they engaged with in mainstream classes. Finally, very effective special education teaching capitalised on the smaller group size in support lessons to make use of a wide range of resources and to provide opportunities for active learning within and outside of the classroom.
Many of the primary and post-primary schools facilitated special education teachers and mainstream class teachers (primary) or subject teachers (post-primary) to work together in the same classroom. Some schools refer to this as ‘co-teaching’ and others use the term ‘team teaching’. When used effectively, team teaching can be a very effective inclusive approach, which can facilitate effective collaboration between teachers and lead to improved experiences and outcomes for a child or young person with special educational needs.
However, for team teaching to be effective, the special education teacher and the class or subject teacher need to plan the lesson collaboratively to ensure a shared understanding and clarity about how the teaching approaches will meet the identified needs of the child or young person with special educational needs. Teachers involved in team teaching also need to evaluate the lesson and adjust their approaches based on their conclusions. Very few teachers involved in the team-teaching lessons observed had planned the lesson collaboratively and, therefore, the benefit of the additional teacher was not utilised fully. It was not evident, in many schools, how the team-teaching approaches implemented were intended to meet the identified needs of the young people with special educational needs. This suggests a need for much greater focus on shared professional dialogue about teaching and learning practices before, during and after team-teaching lessons.
Image: Inclusion 5
School leadership has an important influence on the learning outcomes and experiences of children and young people in schools ( 58 ). The UNCRPD emphasises that ‘the committed leadership of the educational institution is essential in order to introduce and embed the necessary culture, policies and practices to achieve inclusive education at all levels’ ( 59 ). Similarly, research in Ireland suggests that effective school leadership is essential to ensuring inclusive educational provision for all children and young people ( 60 ). While there is no singular, agreed understanding about the dimensions of effective leadership for inclusion ( 61 ) inspection findings provide some useful insights into the elements of school leadership that support inclusive practices and the elements that require further work.
Articulating a clear vision in accessible language and using that vision to guide actions is a key leadership competency ( 62 ). This is vitally important in leadership for inclusion because a clearly articulated vision, underpinned by inclusive and ethical principles, can provide a sense of direction and focus for the entire school community and sets performance expectations for all. It also has the potential to inspire and motivate the school community and to support all children and young people to achieve to their potential.
In inspections of home-school-community liaison (HSCL) coordination in 2023 ( 63 ), inspectors explored the vision that school leaders had for partnership with parents and how successfully they communicated this vision to the school community. The outcomes were encouraging. Most school leaders were able to articulate a very clear vision for parental engagement in their schools and, in many cases, the vision was articulated in a succinct way; for example, one school used ‘every parent counts.’ In schools where a shared, clearly stated vision was central to everyday school life, inspectors noted that members of the school community, including parents, referred to that vision at some stage in their engagements with inspectors.
While these findings arise from a sample of thirty schools and refer to one aspect of inclusion only, they indicate that school leaders are aware of the importance of developing and articulating a clear vision to guide action. During 2025, the Inspectorate plans to continue to develop its work in relation to engaging with school leaders about their vision for inclusion.
Managerial leadership combines the management and leadership functions of a leader and emphasises the extent to which the leader manages the organisation efficiently and effectively to achieve its goals ( 64 ). In educational contexts, it involves the school leader establishing and maintaining an orderly, secure and healthy learning environment. It involves ensuring that all children and young people can access appropriate learning activities. It is also about organising teaching effectively, efficiently and in line with the principle that those with the greatest level of need have access to the greatest level of resources ( 65 ).
The findings from inspections of provision for children and young people with special educational needs in mainstream schools indicate differences in the quality of management of special educational needs resources between the primary and post-primary sectors. They also show that the management and use of additional teaching resources in post-primary schools are a cause for concern ( 66 ).
In most of the primary schools inspected, the management and use of resources to support children with special educational needs were effective ( 67 ). School leaders implemented agreed whole-school approaches to the co-ordination of support for children with special educational needs. The allocation of resources was informed by the Continuum of Support Framework ( 68 ). This facilitated the children with the greatest level of need receiving the highest level of support. Many primary schools were also proactive in encouraging teachers to engage in professional learning courses relevant to inclusion.
The inspections in primary schools also found some elements of ineffective managerial leadership. In five of the seventeen schools inspected in 2023, special education teachers were teaching significant elements of the Mathematics and English curricula to mainstream classes. In other schools, there was significant erosion of teaching time at particular times of the school year. At those times, the special education teachers spent substantial periods organising the special education timetable and administered assessment tests to children. The deployment of special education teachers in this way impacted negatively on the support available for the children with the greatest needs.
Inspection findings from post-primary schools highlight some significant weaknesses in the way in which additional special education teaching resources were deployed. These weaknesses impacted negatively on schools’ ability to make effective provision for young people with special educational needs. Many of the twelve post-primary schools used their special education teaching resources to form smaller mainstream class groups or to provide additional subject option blocks at senior cycle. This approach to the use of special education teaching resources had an evident negative impact on the quality of teaching for those young people who require targeted additional teaching support. Furthermore, as additional special education teaching resources should be used solely and, in their entirety ( 69 ) to support children and young people with special educational needs, such approaches are not in line with the purposes for which targeted resources are provided to schools.
Several of the support classes in the post-primary schools were large and included young people who required support in a diverse range of areas, including English as an additional language, social and emotional development and literacy and/or numeracy skills. This impacted negatively on the teacher’s ability to provide tailored support to the young people aligned to their interests, strengths and needs. In many cases also, the content of the support lessons was determined by the subject specialism of the teacher and was not aligned with the identified needs of the young people. These arrangements impacted on the school’s ability to provide all young people with access to a learning programme appropriate to their interests, strengths and needs.
Essentially, such practices act as a barrier to coherent and responsive provision for young people with special educational needs in post-primary schools. A whole-of-system response, that involves the National Educational Psychology Service, the National Council for Special Education, the Department’s Special Education Section, Oide ( 70 ) the Inspectorate, representatives of teachers and school leaders, children and young people and their parents, is required to ensure that all schools manage their additional resources for inclusion in the most effective and efficient way possible and that all resources are deployed for their intended purposes.
Undertaking leadership responsibilities, with or without a formal leadership role, is increasingly important in promoting inclusive education. Fitzgerald and Radford (2017) ( 71 ) note that many of the teachers who promote effective inclusive practices in a school do so outside of the formal school leadership structure. Other research has highlighted how teachers turn frequently to other teachers within the school for advice on inclusive approaches and practices ( 72 ).
Inspections across mainstream schools, special schools and settings for young people on alternative pathways found many examples of distributed leadership with teachers effectively promoting inclusive practices across the school. For example, teachers in some post-primary schools had very clear leadership roles in relation to the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme (LCA). In the most effective examples, a teacher assumed responsibility for reviewing the effectiveness of the full range of programmes the school offered and for identifying young people for whom the LCA was the most appropriate learning programme.
The teacher was also proactive in ensuring that the young people and their parents were aware of the benefits of the programme and supported them in engaging with the programme. During engagements with inspectors, many young people spoke about the positive impact of engaging in learning programmes such as the LCA on their own school attendance and retention. They stated that the availability of an appropriate programme was a major ‘pull’ factor in their remaining in school ( 73 ).
Providing opportunities for teachers to plan learning activities jointly, and to share expertise about inclusive practices that work for them, is another way of distributing leadership among teachers. While some schools and settings had effective systems to facilitate this regular, collaborative professional dialogue among teachers, such collaboration was not as evident in other schools. A school’s provision for high-quality, inclusive education can be strengthened by giving teachers opportunities to exercise a leadership role in promoting inclusive practices. Related to this is the need for meaningful opportunities for professional collaboration among teachers.
Image: Inclusion 6
What then of our journey towards an inclusive and high-quality school system? Where is the system now, and has progress been made to achieve an inclusive education system? As noted above, just over twenty-five years ago some parents of children with special educational needs had to resort to the courts to establish their children’s right to education ( 74 ). In 2024, there is a clear legislative and policy commitment to inclusion, also reflected in Ireland’s ratification of article twenty-four of the UNCRPD in 2018 ( 75 ). These commitments are supported by the allocation of over one-quarter of the annual budget of the Department of Education to special educational needs ( 76 ). While these legislative and policy commitments demonstrate an aspiration towards an inclusive system, the vision of an inclusive education system may be easier to formulate in legislation than it is to enact in practice ( 77 ).
In summary, inspection findings over the period 2023-2024 show that the Irish education system has made significant progress towards inclusive provision. However, like all systems, there are still areas that need improvement to ensure that all children have access to high- quality learning experiences and that they feel valued, respected and included in their school community.
- At system level, policy makers need to engage with school leaders, teachers, parents, children and young people to collectively develop a vision for an inclusive, high-quality education system. This vision should reflect two core principles: all children and young people should learn together in an inclusive environment; and all children and young people should attain high-quality learning outcomes that enable them to meet their potential.
- Inspection findings and NCSE research ( 78 ) highlight the strategic challenge the system faces in reconciling special classes with inclusive education. There is a real need to provide parents of children with special educational needs with reassurance that an inclusive environment can be the most appropriate setting for their child. This requires stakeholders to work together to build the capacity of all teachers and school leaders to provide responsive learning activities tailored to the interests, strengths and needs of the children and young people in their school.
- Given the importance of schools having a clearly articulated vision for inclusion, it is timely for schools to reflect on how their current vision aligns with the fundamental principle of inclusion that ‘all children matter and matter equally.’
- Accessing a school’s enrolment policy is sometimes the first engagement between a parent or a young person and a school. If all parents and young people ‘matter equally’ there is a real need for school patrons and managers to ensure that enrolment policies and practices reflect the inclusive intent of legislation and policy.
- Many schools work hard to create a welcoming and respectful environment where children and young people feel a sense of belonging. The priority now is to ensure that children and young people in all schools experience this connectedness and are enabled to access equitable, fair and inclusive learning opportunities aligned to their needs and abilities.
- The shortcomings in how many post-primary schools deploy additional resources received from the Department of Education to support inclusion need to be addressed so that young people with the greatest level of need receive the greatest support. The additional resources provided to schools to support young people with additional needs should be used for that purpose only.
- Regular school attendance is important for children and young people because of the clear links between attendance, educational attainment and future employment opportunities. It is important that schools link their attendance strategies with important aspects of teaching and learning such as:
whether the children and young people find classroom experiences engaging, interesting and relevant
the extent to which children and young people experience success in their learning.
- The teaching and learning approaches that children and young people experience in schools, classrooms and other learning settings can be one of the most powerful influences on their achievement
( 79 ). Close collaboration and shared planning between special education teachers and class/subject teachers are essential for high-quality and inclusive teaching and learning. School leaders should reflect on the opportunities they provide their teachers for close cooperation and shared planning.
- Inclusive teaching approaches and learning experiences are dependent on effective assessment practices by teachers and the provision, by them, of differentiated or personalised programmes of work. There is still some way to go to achieve best professional practices in assessment and differentiation across the education system.
- There is a need for teachers to place a greater emphasis on skill development when designing learning activities for children and young people. A particular priority should be afforded to critical thinking skills and young people’s ability to reflect on their progress as learners and to develop a sense of ownership of their learning.
- Central to the effective implementation of these recommendations is ensuring that initial teacher education (ITE) and ongoing teacher professional learning (TPL) provide all teachers, school leaders and other staff with the core competencies to create inclusive learning environments and to provide and support responsive teaching and learning activities. There is a need therefore to engage with ITE and TPL providers to harness their potential to impact positively on the inclusive educational values and beliefs of teachers and other staff at all stages of their professional learning journey.
The conclusions are not exhaustive. They have been derived from an analysis of inspection findings about practice in classrooms, schools and other education settings, and a consideration of pertinent legal provisions and policy objectives and related research. They are offered as a basis for reflection and dialogue about the quality of inclusive practices in our education system at the present time.
There is, perhaps, one additional area that has the potential to exert a profound influence on the future progress that the Irish education system can make towards inclusion: that is, the concept of values-based leadership. Values-based leadership holds that ‘leaders act with integrity, drawing on firmly held personal and professional values’, to inform their decision-making ( 80 ). While values-based leadership is not an uncontested concept, research commissioned by the NCSE contends that to build a truly inclusive system, leaders must be committed to inclusion as a value ( 81 ).
This contention challenges leaders, at all levels of the education system, to unpack the values that underpin their decisions. It calls on leaders to reflect on the extent to which their actions reflect a genuine commitment to ensuring that all children and young people receive the highest quality educational experiences, in the most inclusive environments possible.
