ERO report grossly overstates success

ERO report grossly overstates success

“If fifty per cent of schools claim to be successfully including students with high needs, why are educational outcomes for disabled students so poor?” asks Viv Maidaborn, CEO, CCS Disability Action.

“This is a gross overstatement rather than a conservative estimate”, says Ms Maidaborn, referring to the ERO report released today.

“The Journey to Work report we released earlier this year indicates that disabled students are less likely to have secondary or tertiary qualifications or to be employed when compared to any other minority group. This is a huge problem; we are not supporting our disabled students, and I don’t believe the ERO report is a true reflection of levels of inclusion in our schools.”

“We certainly welcome the review as a starting point but ERO should be reviewing levels of inclusion within all of their reports and using robust and objective indicators.”

Over 200 schools participated in the evaluation using self-review indicators for inclusion that focussed largely on the presence and participation of disabled students with less emphasis on achievements and outcomes.

“The report identifies ethical leadership as one of the key principles in building a culture of inclusion. For parents this really means that when they knock on the door of a school and say I’d like to bring my child here, they hear ‘Of course, no problem’. Some schools do this really well, but many don’t.”

“Minister Roy has talked about professional learning and development for teachers. This really needs to be extended to board members and principals to understand how to truly welcome a diverse range of students and to provide a truly inclusive environment.”

“Special education does receive a reasonable budget from Government but because we are spending this on parallel systems – mainstream and special education environments - we get stuck in discussions around allocation of resources rather than focussing on educational outcomes. This splitting of resources means that neither option gets sufficient funding to succeed for our disabled students.”

“We need to commit to an inclusive education system so we can focus on good educational outcomes for all of our students,” Ms Maidaborn said.

ENDS

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