The Luxembourg Recommendations from the young people are now online

On 16 October 2015 the Agency organised a Hearing in Luxembourg, where participants discussed how their schools and communities ensure an inclusive education for them. The outcomes of this event echo the outcomes of the three previous European Hearings we held in Brussels (2003 and 2011) and in Lisbon (2007). I am pleased to say that each of the outcomes reflects an increasing and visible progress in the implementation of inclusive education in European countries since 2003.

We have come a long way since November 2013, when the Maltese Minister for Education and Employment, Mr Evarist Bartolo asked the Agency to conduct an external audit of the special needs education system in Malta. This activity is a new area for the Agency and it can be seen as a confirmation of the Agency’s competences, knowledge and skills. I am very proud that we are perceived as a professional body that can undertake the complex task of an external audit of policies and practices.

This is a new Agency platform where I will be sharing with you content updates and developments relating to the Agency activities.

After 18 years of operation, a major change took place in January 2014: the Agency’s name was changed to ‘European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education’. The concept ‘inclusive’ is now used in our organisation’s name, to better represent the focus of our work, aiming to support the implementation of European and international policies for inclusive education.