In this blog, I would like to draw your attention to a major leap forward in the Agency’s data collection activities in the area of inclusive education. The Agency has been involved in data collection throughout the past two decades. We first collected comparative quantitative data on the numbers of pupils identified as having special educational needs (SEN) in Agency member countries in 1999. Data collection activities were then reviewed and data has been systematically collected every two years since 2002.
Basically, the data only allowed cross-country comparisons for a few indicators: the percentage of pupils identified as having SEN (based on the whole school population) and the percentage of pupils educated in a segregated setting – that is, a separate special class or special school where the learner is educated for the largest part (80% or more) of their time.
Based on developments like the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006, we have been reflecting on how to further improve our data collection. This long-term work is the current European Agency Statistics on Inclusive Education (EASIE). The goal of this EASIE work – which is really not easy! – is to provide individual country, comparative and aggregated data that informs participation in inclusive education. The EASIE work represents a shift in the emphasis of Agency data collection. It moves away from a focus on pupils with SEN and placement in separate segregated settings, towards a focus on all pupils in compulsory education and enrolment in inclusive settings. On the top of that, we are now able to provide many more indicators in the area of inclusive education and it allows for interesting breakdowns, such as age-appropriate education and gender balances.
I have very high expectations for the role our data collection activities will play in the near future. In the longer term, we anticipate that the EASIE data collection and analysis work will be the starting point for developing more extensive quantitative and qualitative data collection on rights, quality and effectiveness issues.
I recommend that you have a look at the EASIE Methodology Report and the extensive country databases that are now available on our website. Also, please keep an eye on our News section, since we are currently analysing the datasets and will share some significant outcomes from our analysis soon!