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.
To see how the organisation has evolved, we have to go back to 1996, when the Agency was founded as an initiative of the Danish Ministry of Education. Representatives from the ministries of education from 17 European countries supported the initiative as a means of furthering their co-operation in the field. Today the Agency has 28 member countries.
In the early stages, the Agency’s work focused upon the creation of this platform for co-operation at European level, through the national networks built up in all countries. Having achieved this, the focus now is on national and European priorities for education and training, ensuring coherence between specific country initiatives to promote special needs and inclusive education and the relevant EU and international level objectives.
During the 2014–2020 period the Agency will continue to work with member countries to review changes and developments in their educational policies, so as to critically examine implementation of policy initiatives in the field. The main focus of work with countries during this period will be on exploring critical success factors within systems of inclusive education; this will include identifying progress, barriers to progress and actively monitoring and reviewing policy developments in countries in order to support the development of sustainable and effective, inclusive education systems.
I hope to give you updates and outcomes via this blog that you find useful. Feel free to leave your comment or contact us.
Cor J.W Meijer
Agency Director