This is the decade of change. The Covid-19 pandemic, recent geopolitical conflicts and climate change have pushed us to think about the greatest challenges of our time and reassess the ways we do things. The education system needs a hard look, too.
While the term "inclusion" has surfaced as a megatrend across public and private sectors in the last couple of years, it is no stranger to the world of education. What is new, however, is the realisation by governments and civil society that inclusive education involves more than simply placing a student with a disability in the classroom. Many education systems claim to be inclusive but are instead following either segregated or integrated models, missing the mark on meaningful inclusion.
Inclusive education requires systematic change, one that stems from a change in mindsets and skillsets to foster a sense of belonging for all students in the classroom. Systematic change requires principles of inclusion such as whole-system inclusion, the role of learning-friendly environments, how to adapt a curriculum to student needs, differential learning as well as universal design for learning, among others. The Unicef report Education for Every Ability (2020) offers entry points for practical improvements in each of these domains.
