Inclusion ensures equal and high-quality learning for every child and young person

Harri Rinta-aho, Deputy Mayor for Growth and Learning at the City of Espoo, says that one of their main goals is to ensure a smooth and learner-centred learning path for children and young people starting from early childhood education to basic education and all the way to the upper secondary level.

“The aim is to ensure that everyone acquires sufficient knowledge and skills for pursuing further studies and leading a fulfilling life,” he continues.

Inclusion is a combination of different ​​solutions and ways of doing things that promote the creation of a learning process and environment suitable for the needs of children. Its goal is to provide every child with the best possible education and support for learning. Inclusion is not a means to save costs. The support required by the child is given to the child in a mainstream education group.

Early childhood education and pre-primary education aim to ensure that the child is ready for the school path.

“Basic education, for one, teaches children and young people the skills that they will need on the upper secondary level. If a child or young person needs additional support in some area, it must be provided to them in a manner that will allow all young people to have a similar skill level at the end of the ninth grade,” says Miia Loisa-Turunen, Educations Support Manager.

Inclusion also supports the right of children and young people to attend local schools.

If a child or young person has been granted special support, they will receive the support they need in their own class or school. According to the previous model, support would have mainly been available in a special needs education class in a school that could have been located in a different area.

The idea is for the pupil study at their local school instead of having to take a taxi to another school. It is both safe for the child and in line with the climate goals, as reducing transportation also affects emissions and costs. Disability and hospital education are exceptions and organised in their own, appropriate premises either at the city level or regionally in a centralised manner.

Inclusion also strongly involves a well-being aspect. Attending a local school also enables the development of relationships and friendships outside the school hours, when school friends do not live on the other side of the city. The child feels connected to the community both at school and in their leisure time, which supports their mental health and independent movement, for example, to and from school.

The development of basic education also strives to take into account proposals made by families. The City of Espoo regularly organises open events for municipal residents, where guardians can share their thoughts on, among other things, the arrangements for special needs education. At previous events, guardians have specifically wished that children and young people could receive education as close to home as possible, and the provision of education has been developed in accordance with these wishes.

The Basic Education Act determines the three-level support system: general, enhanced and special-needs support. Movement on these support levels can take place in both directions.

If it has been observed in the cooperation between the school and family that the child needs special support in some learning areas, a pedagogical report will be prepared.

Support will be provided for as long as the child needs it. The need for support is reviewed at certain intervals, as the aim is to return to the general support level.

Reasons for needing enhanced support or special-needs support are individual. For example, if a pupil has learning difficulties in mathematics, the subject can be taught by focus areas. If this does not help either, individualisation of the subject may be required. In this case, the pupil studies normally with the rest of the class, but in mathematics they have their own goals and they progress at their own pace.

If the pupil has extensive learning difficulties, which may be manifested as difficulties in many different sub-areas, the pupil needs stronger support. If the pupil has a diagnosis, such as a developmental disability, made by specialised health care, it supports the decision to grant special-needs support, even though teaching is always arranged according to the pupil’s needs.

There are many different ways to help a pupil in the general and enhanced support level, and many can manage with these methods and do not need a decision on special-needs support. The general and enhanced support levels includes assistant services, remedial teaching and part-time special-needs education.

The schools themselves decide what kind of measures and practices their school pupils need in order to achieve inclusion.

There are many models that take pupils’ needs into account, so fortunately, there is plenty of choice. Usually, pupils study in a mainstream education class where they receive the support they need. Sometimes, they study some or all of the lessons in the school’s special-needs education group.

Part-time special-needs education is one of the most common practices in the implementation of inclusion. In this way, pupils in need of support from more than one class can be put in the same group, and a wide-ranging special-needs teacher or special-needs class teacher supports more than one child during the lesson.

Miia Loisa-Turunen rejoices in the success of the schools:

“The teaching of pupils who need special-needs support as part of general education has often been so well organised that after a while the pupils no longer need a decision on special-needs support.”

Juvanpuiston koulu school has long been developing inclusive learning models.

Terhi Värri, who works as a primary school special-needs class teacher at Juvanpuiston koulu school, says that her general education class also includes special-needs support pupils and preparatory education pupils.

“I use many different methods of support in teaching. One of the most common forms of support is the use of images so that everyone knows what we are going to do next. With the help of a timer, the pupils are aware of how much time is left. The lesson structure is clear and always shown on the board. This helps a lot of pupils to concentrate.”

Inclusion requires teachers to be able to develop teaching and practices.

Terhi Värri always plans assignments of different levels for her lessons, so that each pupil can find assignments suitable for their own skill level: easy, medium or more challenging ones. Colour coding is also used a lot in the classroom: the pupils pick assignments of different levels from different coloured bags. The lessons also involve different kinds of group work and play to make the children feel safe and to keep the class spirit high.

“Positive reinforcement, or positive pedagogy, works best. Children who behave in a challenging way may often receive negative feedback, which does not help with their development. It is important to encourage the child, to notice how well they do even the smallest of things,” Terhi says.

According to Terhi, successful achievement of inclusion requires teacher cooperation and co-planning. Juvanpuiston koulu school has flexible groups for teaching the Finnish language and mathematics at every grade level. In flexible groups, pupils are grouped so that everyone receives teaching to achieve their own goals.

From the teachers’ perspective, the main challenge in the achievement of inclusion is the number, attitude and education of the adults. If the class includes pupils who behave in a challenging way and there is just one teacher, it is too much for one person to handle.

“Even if you have all the knowledge, every skill and the best of attitudes in the world, one person is just one person. No one succeeds alone, but team work makes the dream work.”

Schools are constantly brainstorming new solutions.

“It all comes down to attitude and the operating culture. Which of us can classify people and on what right? All children are equal and have the right to attend their local school. Putting this into practice requires rethinking many things, which also leads to doing things differently than before,” says Miia Loisa-Turunen, Education Support Manager.

The aim of inclusion is to provide equal opportunities for everyone to attend their local school, to adapt learning environments to meet the needs of all pupils and to provide support where it is needed. In this way, everyone has equal opportunities in view of further studies and working life.