Diakonie calls for a concrete action plan for inclusion in kindergarten, school and training
What is needed is an inclusive education system for all children and young people from elementary education to university. Not a parallel system, not a special school system, but an inclusive education system for everyone, in which children with disabilities receive the support and care they need
Diakonie director, Maria Katharina Moser
Vienna (OTS) – What is the status of the inclusion of children and young people with disabilities in the educational sector in Austria? “The sad truth is: we don’t know. There is no data,” complains Diakonie director Maria Katharina Moser. “We don’t know how many children with disabilities in Austria are waiting for an inclusive kindergarten place. We do not know how many of the approximately 7,000 early childhood care facilities and kindergartens offer integration or inclusion places. We don’t know how many students in special schools graduate and how many students with special educational needs who went to inclusive classes manage to graduate. We do not know how special educational needs affect careers. There are no available facts and figures,” says Moser.
“However, reliable data, figures and facts would be a prerequisite for a sensible action plan. And the fact that there is no such thing is a deep insight.” It looks as if the education of children with disabilities is simply not of political interest. “You don’t want to know. An ostrich policy. “Head in the sand,” Moser sums it up.
The technical committee that examined the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has also already warned that comprehensive data be collected on the inclusive and segregated education of all children with disabilities.
And the same expert committee gave Austria the worst possible report: Austrian practice is rated as “inadequate”. It is met with massive criticism because of “blatant failures on the part of politicians,” the committee said in a press release.
National action plan: more setbacks than sensible strategies
As Diakonie, we have been criticizing for a long time: The National Action Plan for the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities contains more regression in the chapter on education than sensible strategies for the future. “Children with disabilities are denied equal opportunities,” said Moser.
A look at Germany shows that students who need support are less likely to achieve at least a secondary school leaving certificate at special schools than at regular schools, where all children are taught together. Only 28% of children in special schools achieve a qualification, compared to 46% in mainstream schools.. In Austria we lack these numbers.
A school leaving certificate is crucial for later life chances, especially for opportunities in the labor market, and must be a primary pedagogical and educational policy goal.
Austria looks away. Politics looks away.
“As Diakonie, we are paying attention,” emphasizes Moser and continues: “As far as this is possible under the miserable conditions, we provide children with disabilities with inclusive education from kindergarten to high school in some of our educational institutions in Austria. Our knowledge comes from concrete practice.”
Maria Köck, inclusion educator and mobile development companion in the Diakonie Education kindergartens in Vienna, calls for “an obligatory kindergarten year for the youngest in the education system, including for children with disabilities. This would mean that the public sector would also be obliged to create the missing places.” In addition, it is urgently necessary to reduce bureaucratic hurdles so that private kindergarten providers can also open inclusive groups. And thirdly, what is now needed is an “expansion of the training offering for inclusive elementary educators. There are currently more interested parties than there are training places. And that actually says it all,” says Maria Köck.
Franz Greisberger is director of the inclusive Montessori high school at Diakonie in Salzburg. The school is one of two schools in which Diakonie enables inclusion in the upper grades. “In Salzburg this is taking the form of a school experiment that is urgently waiting to be transferred to the mainstream school system so that we can continue safely,” said Greisberger.
In Austria, the right to a school place ends with compulsory schooling. This means that young people with disabilities are dropped out of the school system. The Diakonie therefore demands a legal right to an 11th and 12th school year. The School Education Act needs to be changed so that this right is enshrined for children with special educational needs.
Diakonia’s demands summarized
The Diakonie director summarizes the demands and says: “What is needed is an inclusive education system for all children and young people from elementary education to university. Not a parallel system, not a special school system, but an inclusive education system for everyone, in which children with disabilities receive the support and care they need
“, so Moser.
You can find images to download for your reporting here: https://www.skyfish.com/p/diakonieat/2387566
Questions & Contact:
Diakonie Austria
Roberta Rastl
Press spokesperson
0664 3149395
presse@diakonie.at