The Strategic Plan for Inclusive Education promoted by the Ministry of Education did not receive the support of the Sectorial Conference this Friday. The eleven communities governed by the PP and the Canary Islands voted against, while the four autonomous communities presided over by the PSOE, the Basque Country, and the Ministry itself supported it.
The rejection opens a new dispute between the Government and a good part of the communities over a strategy that aims to progressively transform the educational attention of students with specific needs. The project proposes that the ordinary school becomes the reference for enrolling students with disabilities and autism and that special education centers evolve mainly towards support, advice, and reference functions for the ordinary system.
The Ministry maintains that the plan does not imply the closure of these centers and that it must be developed later through a action plan with specific measures, funding, and deadlines. The autonomous communities opposed to the document, however, question precisely that they have been asked to support the framework without having that economic report yet.
The PP demands an economic report and the Ministry speaks of "partisan strategy"
Funding has become the center of the confrontation. The communities governed by the PP argue that the document does not include an economic report that determines how much it will cost to implement the measures and how they will be financed.
The Education Counselor of Cantabria, Sergio Silva Fernández, has demanded that the Government assume a financial commitment to prevent state decisions from impacting the autonomous budgets.
The Secretary of State for Education, Abelardo de la Rosa, has rejected this argument and defended that the economic report will arrive at a later stage. In his opinion, the document submitted this Friday to the communities constitutes the "conceptual framework" on which the rules and funding must subsequently be developed.
De la Rosa has attributed the result to political reasons. "Surprisingly, it has been rejected by the autonomous communities where the PP governs," he stated before lamenting that, in the Ministry's view, a "ideological position" and a "partisan strategy" have prevented the common framework from being approved.
The Secretary of State has also made it clear that Education intends to move forward despite the result of the Sectorial: "The rejection of the autonomous communities will not prevent us from continuing with the work".
The future of 45,000 special education students
One of the central points of the plan affects the 45,725 students with disabilities or autism who, according to the latest official data collected in the document, are currently studying in special education centers or in specific classrooms within regular centers. They represent approximately 14% of this student body, while the remaining 86% is already enrolled in regular centers.
The strategy proposes to gradually move towards greater enrollment in regular centers, although it introduces a caveat for students who need "highly specialized attention".
Special education centers would gradually act "mainly as reference, advisory, and support centers for the regular system", so that their professionals and resources contribute to attending to students with disabilities in regular schools and institutes.
The plan itself acknowledges that this change requires additional resources: more teachers, reduction of ratios, stability of staff, specific training, and new professional profiles, in addition to more coordination time between teams. The Ministry officially defines the plan as a framework to advance towards an inclusive system and improve, among other aspects, the provision of resources, teacher training, and accessibility.
Madrid and Castilla y León fear that family choice will be limited
The controversy is not limited to economic cost. Some PP communities believe that the model may end up restricting the possibility for families to choose between regular and special education.
Sources from the Community of Madrid have defended their "firm commitment to Special Education and the freedom of choice for families" and assert that they understand that the goal of the plan is to end the current model.
Castilla y León also believes that the proposal may "restrict the freedom of families." The Junta maintains that inclusive education and Special Education are compatible and argues that each student should receive the support that best suits their needs, both in a regular center and in a specific one.
The Ministry holds a different interpretation. The document states that an inclusive system should not force families to choose between receiving specialized support and participating in a common educational environment, but rather guarantee both possibilities simultaneously.
Psychologists, physiotherapists, or school nursing
The proposed transformation is not limited to the place where students study. The document proposes to incorporate or strengthen in ordinary schools new professional profiles to address a greater diversity of needs.
Among them are professionals in education and social integration, intercultural mediation, special education assistants, sign language interpreters, speech therapy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, educational psychology, or school nursing. They could work directly in the centers or through external services coordinated with teachers and guidance teams.
Changes are also proposed in the organization of classrooms, with tools such as co-teaching —two teachers working simultaneously—, flexible groupings, and Universal Design for Learning, in addition to reviewing psychopedagogical assessment to identify the barriers each student encounters and determine the necessary supports.
The strategy also proposes a balanced distribution of students with needs between public and private schools and the creation of an inclusive education observatory with common indicators for all communities.
There is agreement to distribute 31.3 million for Vocational Training
The division over inclusive education has not been transferred to all matters addressed in the meeting. The Sectorial Conference has indeed given the green light to the distribution of 31.3 million euros among the autonomous communities to promote Vocational Training, with the backing of all autonomous regions.
The Ministry has also informed the communities of the work to modify the royal decree aimed at reducing ratios in Early Childhood, Primary, and Secondary Education. The PP communities have questioned the proposal, which they describe as "a botch job" and "unfeasible," and demand state funding to implement the new requirements.
The meeting has taken place just a few days after the latest results of PISA were made known, which have also been part of the debate despite not being initially on the agenda. The communities have focused on the deterioration of the results, while Education maintains that the decline also affects other countries and points to reading comprehension as one of the priority areas for improvement.