7 myths and facts about inclusion

1. fewer and fewer children in Switzerland are attending a special school

In the 2020 / 21 school year, 1.8 per cent of children of compulsory school age in Switzerland attended a special school - slightly more than in 1999 / 2000 (1.7 per cent). This is according to data from the Federal Statistical Office. «The school integration of children with special educational needs has no effect on the special school rate,» says Beatrice Kronenberg, who analysed the data on behalf of the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation.

Children receiving inclusive education achieve at least the same level of progress, and often even slightly more progress, than special needs pupils.

Gérard Bless, Professor of Special Needs Education at the University of Fribourg

In contrast, the proportion of learners attending special classes at mainstream schools, so-called small classes, has fallen sharply: from 4.3 per cent at the turn of the millennium to 1.2 per cent in the 2020/21 school year. The closure of special classes is partly compensated for by increased measures: in 2020/21, 2.4 per cent of learners in mainstream classes benefited from special educational support.

2. special schools provide better support for children with high educational needs

«Inclusive school children achieve at least the same level of learning progress as special needs pupils, and often even slightly better,» says researcher Gérard Bless from the University of Freiburg. The German Institute for Quality Development in Education (IQB), which analysed data from 27,000 children, came to a similar conclusion in 2011.

«Pupils with special educational needs who are taught in a mainstream school,» the researchers summarise, «show higher performance in all areas examined than comparable pupils in special schools.»

For example, children with inclusive schooling have a performance advantage of up to half a year in maths and reading. However, the IQB study is only a snapshot in time. A longitudinal study conducted by Bielefeld University in 2017, on the other hand, sheds light on learning development over time and shows that if you look at performance development over three years, the type of school hardly matters.

«Although the reading development of children in inclusive schools progressed slightly faster than that of special needs pupils, the latter made slightly better progress in writing,» says study co-author Birgit Lütje-Klose. «Special schools don't provide better support - but no worse either.»

3. children with disabilities feel stressed in mainstream school

As part of a study supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, researchers Carmen Zurbriggen and Martin Venetz investigated the question of how children with learning difficulties and behavioural problems experience mainstream school lessons. They followed over 800 children from 40 sixth-grade classes for a week at a time. The children were asked to document their current state of mind several times a day.

The analysis yielded results that the research team had not expected: «Children with learning difficulties obviously did not feel overwhelmed in class. They were not more stressed than their classmates, but even showed a positive emotional experience more often on average compared to their classmates,» says Zurbriggen. Children with behavioural problems showed a different picture: they were more often and more stressed than their classmates.

4. integrated children do not find a connection at the mainstream school

«In fact, studies show that children with special educational needs are less well accepted socially at mainstream schools than their average peers,» says researcher Bless. This is most evident in children with behavioural problems. Findings often pointed in a similar direction for pupils with learning difficulties and in some cases for mentally impaired children.

Some children only have one friend, but feel that they are in good hands socially.

Carmen Zurbriggen, Professor at the University of Luxembourg

«However, most studies define social participation in quantitative terms, i.e. by the number of social contacts the child has, and are often based on information provided by peers or teachers,» emphasises researcher Zurbriggen. Sometimes surveys in which children provide information themselves relativise the picture: «Some children only have one friend, for example, but feel that they are in good social company.»

A longitudinal study by the University of Fribourg also suggests that it is worth looking beyond school: it concludes that children with integrated schooling have more active leisure behaviour, more social interaction and less media consumption than their peers from special schools.

5. school integration is at the expense of the normally gifted

Do children with special educational needs slow others down? Scientists from the Universities of St. Gallen and Zurich wanted to find out. Their work earned them the 2021 Swiss Prize for Educational Research and records the school performance, first years of employment and later wages of 50,000 young people from the canton of St. Gallen in the period from 2008 to 2017.

Firstly, the results confirm what many fear: Integrated children negatively influence their peers. However: «Firstly, this effect is moderate when it comes to school performance, insignificantly small when it comes to wages - and not demonstrably linked to unemployment,» says researcher Beatrix Eugster. «Secondly, it only occurs when children with special educational needs make up more than 15 to 20 per cent of the class.»

What would happen if all children with special educational needs were segregated? The researchers also take up this scenario and show that this would result in poorer school performance on average across the entire age group.

«Negative effects would no longer be cushioned by mixing and would be more significant: the classes with segregated children would perform much worse, while the others would only be slightly better off,» explains Eugster. «Overall, the advantages of inclusive schools therefore outweigh the disadvantages.»

6. whether a child ends up in a special school depends on their social background

«The special school requires a diagnosis, which mitigates factors of origin,» says Andrea Lanfranchi from the Intercantonal University for Special Needs Education. Nevertheless, the proportion of children with a migration background at special schools is significantly higher. In the canton of Zurich, for example, it is 40 per cent - compared to 25 per cent at public primary level.

Since 1990, education expenditure per child has risen every year - both in special schools and in mainstream schools.

Lanfranchi speaks of discrimination in connection with special classes at mainstream schools: Eight out of ten children there have a migration background. As part of a study, Lanfranchi has alienated case studies and presented them to teachers and school psychologists to plan measures.

The result: «If a child is called Antonio and his father is an unskilled labourer, he is three times more likely to be sent to a special class if he has difficulties with reading, writing and arithmetic than if he is called Mike and is a doctor's son with identical problems.»

7 Inclusion is a cost-cutting exercise

Teachers are often the ones who make the accusation that savings are being made in the name of integration. «What data is available does not tend to support this claim,» says expert Beatrice Kronenberg. Data from the Federal Statistical Office also shows that education spending per child has increased every year since 1990 - both in special schools and mainstream schools.

The special school rate has risen slightly over the decades. In contrast, many cantons have abolished special classes, a regular school option for children with learning difficulties, behavioural problems or foreign languages. In many places, these children now attend mainstream classes, in which increased measures are intended to address their increased educational needs.

However, this is not always the case, as Kronenberg's report shows: for example, when learning targets are reduced due to learning difficulties, but the children concerned do not receive any special educational support.

«In the past, children with learning goal adjustments were placed in a special school or special class,» says Kronenberg. «Nowadays, they sometimes sit in a mainstream class and don't receive any special measures.» According to Kronenberg, this constellation affected around 3,600 pupils with reduced learning objectives in three or more subjects in the 2019/20 school year and a further 10,000 with adjustments in one or two subjects. "These learners are simply allowed to go along without their support needs being met.

Typically, it is children whose behaviour is inconspicuous who are affected by this problem. They go under because the teacher's attention is absorbed by others. Their parents are often not in a position to stand up for them because they are not familiar with the school system in this country and are not aware of the far-reaching consequences of adjusting learning objectives, especially with regard to career choices."