Germany’s Lack of Progress in School Inclusion: Parents Demand Change

Cologne (dpa / lnw) – According to a parents’ association, Germany is not making good progress when it comes to teaching children with and without disabilities at regular schools. The political will for school inclusion is missing in almost all federal states and also in the federal government, which also bears great responsibility here, said Kirsten Ehrhardt from the nationwide parents’ initiative “Living together – learning together” on Tuesday in the “Morgenecho” on WDR 5. Parents also testified North Rhine-Westphalia therefore wanted to demonstrate for more inclusion in the classrooms in Geneva on the occasion of a current review of the implementation of the UN Disability Rights Convention.

The UN Convention obliges children and young people with disabilities to be taught together with pupils without disabilities at regular schools if the parents so wish. According to Ehrhardt, Germany cannot afford a “double system” with special schools in the long term. One should say goodbye to special schools and instead invest in precautions so that inclusion in mainstream schools works well. It is wrong to tie teaching staff to the special schools, they should switch to the regular schools in a transformation process, demanded the association’s vice-president. School must change, inclusion must always be considered.

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