25 Years of Disability Equality in the Classroom Putting Inclusion in the Context of Educational...

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)


Basic Propositions

1. The primary and ultimate purpose, the Alpha and Omega, of schooling and

education is to humanize society


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


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


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


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


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


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’


‘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


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 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


• 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


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:


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.


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


• 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.


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.


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”.

John Lambert: Crime, Police and Race Relations, pp.128-130. OUP and IRR, 1970.


Research conducted by Race on the Agenda (ROTA) in 2013 found that many academies and free schools are basically ignoring the Equality Act 2010:


‘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)


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 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.


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?

•What career do you want to pursue?


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


From IAP to IRP

IAP before Education Act 2011

IRP

No power to make a governing body reinstate an excluded student


Composition of panel includes:-Local headteacher-SEN expert-Excluding head-Chair of Governors


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 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 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

[email protected]

www.gusjohn.co.uk

All Gus John’s Books distributed by:

New Beacon Books,76 Stroud Green Road,

London N4 3EN 020 7272 4889

[email protected]

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