25 Years of Disability Equality in the Classroom
Putting Inclusion in the Context of Educational Reform
21 March 2015
Gus John
Honorary Fellow & Associate Professor
The Struggle for Inclusion
Find out just what any people will quietly
submit to and you have the exact measure
of the injustice and wrong which will be
imposed on them
Frederick Douglass (1857)
The Struggle for Inclusion
Basic Propositions
1.
The primary and ultimate purpose, the
Alpha and Omega, of schooling and
education is to humanize society
The Struggle for Inclusion
2.
Education is a fundamental human
right. It is not a privilege to be granted
on the basis of social class, racial or
ethnic origin, wealth, religion and belief,
age, sex or physical ability
The Struggle for Inclusion
3.
Education is not just for equipping
people with skills for the workplace, or
for enhancing the nation’s economic
competitiveness in a global free market
economy
The Struggle for Inclusion
4.
It is for developing in people the skills
and competences to take control of
their own lives and to function as
responsible social citizens, demanding
and safeguarding their own rights,
having due regard to and respect for
the rights of others, and embracing
their responsibilities to themselves,
their families and to society
The Struggle for Inclusion
5.
It is the duty of schools to ensure that
regardless of the beliefs or dispositions
of parents/carers, children and young
people are provided with the
knowledge, understanding and skills to
be at ease with and respect
themselves so that they can respect
others, especially people who are
different from themselves
The Struggle for Inclusion
6.
Schooling is increasingly hitched to a
neo-liberal agenda that defines its
purpose mainly as preparing students
to meet labour market needs and
improve the nation’s economic
competitiveness in a global free-market
economy
The Struggle for Inclusion
7. Such an ideology promotes:
 the cult of the individual
 selfishness
 greed
 the survival of the fittest... even when it
pretends that we all subscribe to ‘commonly
shared values’
The Struggle for Inclusion
‘In Year 1 of our School Exclusions Inquiry we found a boy of Black
Caribbean heritage with Special Educational Needs (SEN), eligible for
free school meals is 168 times more likely to be excluded from school
than a White British girl without SEN, from a more affluent family….
On 24 April 2013 we published our Year 2 report "Always Someone
Else's Problem" on illegal exclusions. Supported by a survey of
teachers, it details the scale and nature of children illegally excluded. At
a conservative estimate, this affects thousands of children in several
hundred schools’.
http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/info/schoolexclusions
The Struggle for Inclusion
3,900 permanent exclusions in secondary
schools in 2012/13, with ‘persistent disruptive
behaviour’ accounting for 30.8 per cent of all
permanent exclusions
In state-funded primary schools exclusions for
physical assault against an adult is a slightly
more common trigger for a permanent exclusion,
accounting for 31.3 per cent of all primary
permanent exclusions.
The Struggle for Inclusion
The DfE reports that:
• Pupils with special educational needs (SEN)
(with and without statements) account for 7 in 10
of all permanent exclusions
• Pupils with SEN without statements are around
ten times more likely to receive a permanent
exclusion than pupils with no SEN
The Struggle for Inclusion
• Pupils with a statement of SEN are
around six times more likely to
receive a permanent exclusion than
pupils with no SEN
• Pupils with SEN also have the highest
rate of fixed period exclusion
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-exclusions
The Struggle for Inclusion
All schools need to have regard to the Equality
Act 2010.
Schools were required to comply with the Public
Sector Equality Duty of the Act during the period
covered by these statistics. The requirements
which the following section of the 2015 guidance
on school exclusion highlights have not changed
since 2010:
The Struggle for Inclusion
7. Under the Equality Act 2010 (“the Equality
Act”), schools must not discriminate against,
harass or victimise pupils because of their:
gender, race, disability, religion or belief, or
sexual orientation; because of a pregnancy /
maternity; or because of a gender reassignment.
For disabled children, this includes a duty to
make reasonable adjustments to policies and
practices.
The Struggle for Inclusion
8.
The public sector equality duty means that,
in carrying out their functions, schools must
also have due regard to the need to:
• eliminate discrimination, harassment,
victimisation and other conduct that is
prohibited by the Equality Act;
• advance equality of opportunity between
people who share a protected characteristic
and people who do not; and
The Struggle for Inclusion
• foster good relations between people who share
a protected characteristic and people who do not;
in particular by having due regard to the need to
tackle prejudice and promote understanding.
The Struggle for Inclusion
9. These duties must be taken into account
when deciding whether to exclude a pupil.
Schools must also ensure that their policies and
practices do not indirectly discriminate against
pupils by unfairly placing them at a greater risk
of exclusion than others.
The Struggle for Inclusion
Provisions within the Equality Act allow
schools to take action to deal with
particular disadvantages that may affect a
specific group, where this can be shown to
be a reasonable and proportionate way of
dealing with such issues
influences may particularly infect and
misdirect their children’s achievement and
undermine their chances for success and
mobility”.
The Struggle for Inclusion
Research conducted by Race on the
Agenda (ROTA) in 2013 found that many
academies and free schools are basically
ignoring the Equality Act 2010:
The Struggle for Inclusion
‘Out of the 78 free schools opened in 2011 and
2012:
• Only 7.7% have published one equality objective
• Most seem to be unaware of the Equality Act
• Less than 25% have made reference to the
Equality Act 2010 in their key documents and
policies’
- Race on the Agenda (2013)
The Struggle for Inclusion
Academies and free schools are excluding at a
much higher rate in proportion to the total
number of schools:
• In 2012-13 a total of 18,763 maintained schools
excluded 2,700 pupils
• Yet, only 2,390 academies excluded 1,930
pupils (a mere 770 less than all maintained
schools)
The Struggle for Inclusion
• The September 2012 guidance stated that:
‘…permanent exclusion should only be used as a
last resort, in response to a serious breach, or persistent
breaches, of the school's behaviour policy; and where
allowing the pupil to remain in school would seriously
harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others in the
school. The decision to exclude a pupil must be lawful,
reasonable and fair.
The Struggle for Inclusion
Schools have a statutory duty not to
discriminate against pupils on the basis of
protected characteristics, such as disability
or race. Schools should give particular
consideration to the fair treatment of pupils
from groups who are vulnerable to exclusion
What do you want to do when you grow up?
• What are you going to study at University?
The Struggle for Inclusion
The now withdrawn 2015 guidance read as follows:
• It is for the headteacher to decide whether a child’s
behaviour warrants permanent exclusion, though this is
a serious decision and should be reserved for a serious
breach, or persistent breaches, of the school's behaviour
policy; or where a pupil’s behaviour means allowing the
pupil to remain in school would be detrimental to the
education or welfare of the pupil or others in the school
The Struggle for Inclusion
From IAP to IRP
IAP before Education Act 2011
IRP
No power to make a governing body
reinstate an excluded student
The Struggle for Inclusion
Composition of panel includes:
- Local headteacher
- SEN expert
- Excluding head
- Chair of Governors
The Struggle for Inclusion
The Children’s Commissioner in the first of her exclusion
reports, ‘They Never Give Up on You’, called on the
Government to and reinstate the pre-2012 Independent
Appeal Panels.
That report critiqued the Independent Review Panels
and drew attention to the opinion of the Joint Committee
on Human Rights which stated that the IRP model
breached Article 13 of the European Convention on
Human Rights regarding the right to a fair trial.
The Struggle for Inclusion
‘The one-size-fits-all approach promoted by this
system creates inflexible classrooms where
exclusion is an inevitable feature of the landscape.
This narrow focus and continual pressure is not in
the best interests of young people and violates
Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child (UNCRC) stating that the best interests of
children must be the primary consideration in all
actions…
The Struggle for Inclusion
‘The discontinuity and disruption suffered by
excluded pupils violates Article 2 of the UNCRC
that states all rights apply to all children
regardless of what they have done, as well as
Article 28 that states all children have a right to
an education. Exclusion unquestionably curtails
these rights’
Mapping the Exclusion Process: Inequality, Justice and the
Business of Education
- Dr Christy Kulz, 2015 (research report for CEN)
Professor Gus John
07539 476041
profgusjohn@gmail.com
www.gusjohn.co.uk
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