The Right to Inclusive Education – Impressive numbers!

Italy-Inclusive-Education

Italy is, so far, the only European country in which almost all (99.6%) disabled pupils, out of a total of 170,000 (in 2007-2008), were included in mainstream schools.

In Italy inclusive education is achieved with the help of over 90,000 specialized teachers for learning support and an additional 25,000 educators employed by the schools. As well, physical barriers in access to schools have been almost eliminated. An amendment of 1999 concerned inclusive university settings and, as a result, an impressive 12,400 disabled students were enrolled in Italian universities in 2006, tripling within only six years!

Numbers for all European countries are available at www.european-agency.org