Perspectives in Special Needs and Inclusion in Education

Running head: SPECIAL EDUCATION
Special Education
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Authors Note:

1
SPECIAL EDUCATION
Introduction:
The right of each child to have a free and fair society to live and grow up is first and
foremost important to the growth of children. Differentiation to the children on the basis of their
mental and physical attributes is absolutely unacceptable in any society. The United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child have made number of amendments to international laws in
regards to protecting the rights of differently able children in education and other aspects of the
society. It is important to not detach the specially and differently able children from the
mainstream society to give them their right to free society and education. An in-depth discussion
on the perspectives of special needs and inclusion of education to the requirements of children
shall be made in this document.
Perspectives in Special Needs and Inclusion:
Internationally, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC,
1989) influenced laws in various member countries. The Convention includes the right for every
child to be fully included in society (Article 23) and education (Articles 24 & 28). Following on
from the UNCRC, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO) members agreed the Salamanca Statement (1994), which strongly encouraged
inclusion and focused on the need for educational reform in order to accept the individual
differences or issues.
This assignment considers inclusion, in educational environments, in two different countries:
England and Portugal. One journal article will be considered from each country, to explore how
the approaches to inclusion have been developed within the concerned country. The development
of policy to support inclusion will be considered for each country before exploring the article

2
SPECIAL EDUCATION
relating to inclusive practice in both countries. The readings will then be used to form the basis
of the discussion to critically compare different approaches to inclusion.
Views and policy relating to the inclusion of children with SEN have changed over time. In the
United Kingdom, the Forster Education act 1870 started the journey of compulsory Education for
all. Nevertheless, until the 1950s some students with mental or sensory disabilities were
considered ‘uneducable’. Moreover, the beginning of inclusion in education occurs with the
Warnock Report (1978) and the following laws arising from the 1981 Education Act. The term
‘special educational needs’ and the valuable idea of integrating children with such needs in
places of education instead of caring settings have been introduced in this report. Children were
submitted to a multidisciplinary assessment to decide whether a child should have a ‘statement of
special educational need’. Despite the global acceptance of the report, it was mainly based on
integration of the children. Some disagrees with the application of the approaches suggested in
the report. Corbett (1996), for example, defended earlier approaches, suggesting these were more
useful because the children were expected to learn life skills in order to prepare them for life.
Wearmouth (2001) further notes that Warnock considered special schools as occupational,
promoting the acquisition of skills which were normally non-academic. Since 1994 Code of
Practice on the Identification and Assessment of Special Educational Needs and the Special
Educational Needs and Disability Act of 2001, parents have been given the opportunity to send
their child to a mainstream school. Higher importance was placed into the social model of SEN,
which delegates society the obligation for responding to the different needs of each individual
(Slee,1998). Black-Hawkins (2010) advocates these measures have high prices and continually
rely on politics. This policy within the GB was introduced by the new kids and Families Act
(2014) and was alleged to produce opportunities for inclusion for kids from birth to the age of

3
SPECIAL EDUCATION
twenty five. This was the results of an amendment within the political philosophy that resulted
during this new legislation and Statutory Policy (Blackburn, 2016). This new about-face, had a
return of the Coalition Government following the election in 2010, within which they secure to
finish the ‘bias towards inclusion.’ The current policy in the UK was introduced by the new
Children and Families Act (2014) and was supposed to create opportunities of inclusion to
children from birth to the age of 25 (Al-Dababneh, 2017).
In Portugal, in 1979 special education was officially defined, by the law 66/79. Moreover, this
law regulates that all the children and young people with physical, sensory or intellectual needs
should be educated in mainstream schools. Additionally, it specified that special education
services were not responsible for children with learning and behaviour difficulties. Subsequently,
in the 1980s mobile teams of special education teachers were formed. At the same time, parents
and technicians created education organisations (CERCI), which became the Portuguese special
schools. General framework has made education since 1986, when Portuguese educational
system was created to enact Basic Education Law 48/86 were. Following this, Costa &
Rodrigues (1999) consider that the Decree-Law 319/91 was crucial for inclusion practices in
mainstream once it settled the right of children with special needs to be educated in mainstream
school by presenting the framework for tailoring teaching and learning practices for children
with SEN. Clearly, this Decree-Law shadows the movement set by the Warnock report
(Department of Education and Science) as it promotes the substitution of the medical
classification with the notion of pupils with special educational needs. Subsequently, and after
the Salamanca Statement (1994), Decree-Law 3/2008 determined the entitlement to specialised
support in order to create equal opportunities for all and to improve the quality of the education
and learning processes (Bagotia, 2018).