One school for all?
In the past, children with disabilities or learning or behavioural problems attended special schools; today, they attend mainstream schools whenever possible. What supporters praise as a social achievement is seen by critics as a test for the school system. What can inclusion really achieve and what not?
Rahand is a child with special educational needs. The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education defines these as pupils «who cannot achieve appropriate developmental and educational goals without additional special educational or other support». In other words, they need special assistance in order to be able to follow lessons.
Special educational needs can be minor or temporary, for example if a child has a slight reading and spelling difficulty. Ideally, the basic special educational programme that the primary school is required to provide will then take effect. These low-threshold measures include speech therapy or psychomotor skills, but also integrative support (IF), i.e. support from the school's special needs teacher embedded in the classroom lessons.
In some places there are six weekly lessons of integrative support - in others only two.
IF does not require a diagnosis and is used, for example, if a child has minor learning difficulties such as delayed acquisition of written language, problems with maths or a lack of work strategies. The amount of time the special needs teacher has for the class depends on the school level, but above all on the canton or municipality. In some places it is six lessons a week, in others only two - a workload that everyone has to share.
Customised support thanks to special school status
Children like Rahand, on the other hand, are entitled to individualised support resources. Special or social pedagogues and auxiliary staff such as classroom assistants support them on an hourly or daily basis so that they can take part in lessons at a mainstream school. This special support is linked to special school status and this is linked to a medical diagnosis or an assessment by the canton's school psychology service.
The target group are children with physical or mental impairments, speech and learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders or behavioural disorders. In the past, they attended a special school or special classes at mainstream schools, also known as small classes. Today, where possible, they learn together with their peers of average development.
This paradigm shift is due to social change, but also to the provisions of the Disability Equality Act, which came into force in 2004. Although it is not possible to sue for a place in a mainstream school, the school may not refuse a child with special educational needs without good reason.
Better learning conditions or disadvantages for everyone?
Today's primary school wants to be a school for everyone. Critics say that this leads to an overload of teachers and disadvantages for everyone: children with special educational needs are not adequately supported at mainstream schools and normally gifted peers are held back by them. They are calling for a return to small classes and special education.
Advocates of integrative approaches, on the other hand, are convinced that children with special educational needs are in good hands in mainstream classes, where they make better progress than in special schools - and they believe that this advantage is not at the expense of the normally gifted. What does the research say? What is important for inclusion to succeed? Where does it reach its limits? How do those who have to implement it educationally fare?
When more than two thirds of first-graders do not speak German at home, it is not easy to reinforce the content.
Back to Rahand and the Schauenberg school. The circle breaks up and the children sit down at their desks. Special needs teacher Lea Albrecht returns with some of the class from the group room, where she has told Anton's story in simplified language. More than two thirds of the 22 first-graders do not speak German at home. It is not easy to deepen content when the children lack basic language skills, such as not knowing what «Beutel» means.
Albrecht works ten lessons a week in teacher Joy Traber's class. Six of these are for the benefit of the class, four are dedicated to Rahand's special educational needs. Because the aim is also to encourage the boy's independence, the special needs teacher does not sit next to Rahand all the time, but also lets him work on his own. In this way, she remains an additional contact person for the rest of the class.
Albrecht works integratively as often as possible, i.e. in the classroom. «Depending on the situation, separate work is also an option,» she says. For example, if a pupil who is struggling with arithmetic needs space to lay out beans to help her visualise the number range. Or, like now, when children with large gaps in their German are practising spelling in a small group. The remedial teacher often involves children who are strong at school as helpers. Today it is Kristina who is making progress in writing.
After the break, the class moves on to maths. The children add up in the 20s room. Rahand has increased the level of difficulty on his own: he is multiplying. His brother taught him how to do it. «Numbers are great,» he says, «I even do maths in the car.» While the maths goes quickly, the boy is visibly struggling to put the numbers on the page.
Children with behavioural problems are often the most challenging for schools.
Curative educator Dorothee Miyoshi
«Strict,» he complains and looks at Joëlle Toscan, who is sitting next to him: «Come on, Rahand, one more.» The class assistant accompanies Rahand for ten lessons a week. In PE, she helps him get changed or with exercises for which he lacks strength and balance. Getting pencils ready, pulling out the workbook, turning pages - this also takes longer for Rahand, and he is not always patient with himself.
«I can't take too much off him,» says Toscan with a wink, «otherwise he'll get comfortable.» Rahand grins. At times, he has to take strong medication, and then his ability to absorb often ends before school closes. At such times, it helps to go for a walk outside with Mrs Toscan. «At the same time, we work on practising perseverance,» says the class assistant, «and realising that some rules apply to everyone.»
For a while, the fact that Rahand got so much attention caused resentment. Some of his classmates thought it was unfair, and Rahand sometimes added fuel to the fire by retaliating with swear words when another child accidentally bumped into him while changing. «The first few weeks were full of conflict,» says curative teacher Albrecht. Clarification helped: in the book «Eugen und der freche Wicht», children learn how the brain controls speech, senses and movements - and what can happen if something gets stuck.
«This helped the children to better categorise Rahand's needs,» says Albrecht. «We didn't focus on him as a special case, but thought together about the extent to which we all have characteristics that mean we need special support - in the form of glasses, for example.»
Where integration reaches its limits
Class assistant Toscan, a trained pharmaceutical assistant and mother of two, was one of the first assistants to help teachers in Zurich integrate children with special educational needs 16 years ago. Since then, she has accompanied many children: Pupils with physical and mental impairments, autism spectrum disorders or learning disabilities. Where does Toscan see the limits of what integration can achieve?
«It becomes difficult when the distance to the mainstream school child is too great in the long term,» she says, «for example in cognitive terms: If we mainly work separately with the integrated child because they can't follow what the class is doing, even with adapted material. In the case of children with intellectual disabilities, I have often found that the demands become too high from middle school onwards and the opportunities for participation in group topics become smaller and smaller. This raises the question of whether integration is still possible.»
Many children are not able to stick to the rules, contain their anger and frustration and sometimes put themselves aside.
How much integration can a school take? It depends on who we are talking about - this is the conclusion of an article on the topic by the umbrella organisation of Swiss teachers LCH: «In the discussion about the further development of inclusive schools, it should always be clarified in advance which «clientele» is being integrated. This is often forgotten, and then apples and oranges are confused,» writes Dorothee Miyoshi, member of the LCH Executive Board.
«Learners with learning and behavioural difficulties do not place the same demands on the school as learners with a disability. In principle, it is often most challenging for schools to deal adequately with learners with behavioural problems. They can push the system to its limits.»
Teacher Traber and special needs teacher Albrecht know what this looks like from experience - with children who refuse to play, throw themselves on the floor, mimic you, shout around, run away, claim the class workload of the special needs teacher who «looks after» them outside so that lessons can take place in the classroom.
«Sure,» says Traber, «these are extreme situations. But difficult behaviour also takes up a lot of space in everyday life.» Many children are unable to stick to the rules, contain their anger and frustration when they encounter resistance, and find it difficult to take a step back or stay on task for longer than five minutes.
Where some demand so much attention, others get the short end of the stick, the teachers make no secret of this: the motivated, but weaker children, who can sometimes put their needs on the back burner, have to take second place.
«It's not children with special school status that challenge us the most, but those with behavioural problems,» summarises primary school teacher Aléxia Jaggi from Opfikon. «And I've never seen behavioural problems lead to special school status, which paves the way for more resources.»
The foundations for this would be in place: The canton of Zurich, for example, distinguishes between three indication areas for special school status, whereby type A concerns children «with special structural needs», which can be caused by a «behavioural disability», among other things.
«Type A special school status has not yet been applied in our school district - at least not in integrative special education,» says Rafael Summerauer, headteacher at Rahand's school. This is understandable when you consider the school's catchment area as well as social developments, says co-principal Pirmin Pelican: «There is the threat of a bottomless pit.»
No more sick people, but more and more diagnoses
Pelican addresses a challenge with regard to behavioural disorders: There are not more sick people, but more and more diagnoses. This can be seen in the example of autism: «When I was a student, the diagnosis affected one in 1000 people - now it is one in 80 to 100 people,» says Basel-based adolescent psychiatrist Alain Di Gallo. Today, we speak of autism spectrum disorders and thus take into account the entire range of developmental disorders - including mild forms.
432 children attend the Schauenberg day school, ten have special school status. In large parts of the catchment area in Zurich North, eight out of ten families fulfil two or more risk factors for social stress: they live on social welfare or a low income, are single-parent families, have cramped living conditions or no permanent residence permit. «As a hotspot school, we have additional resources,» says headteacher Pelican, «they need to be utilised efficiently.»
The school management allocates resources in such a way that it combines the entire quota for low-threshold integrative support and German as a second language and creates a support setting based on the support needs of the class.
«This means that we have at least eight weekly support lessons per class in kindergarten and lower school and at least six in middle school,» says Pelican. «Depending on the composition of the group, we place a stronger focus on integrative support or German as a second language.»
In large parts of Zurich North, eight out of ten families fulfil two or more risk factors for social stress.
The headteachers feel well supported by the district education authority: «A lot is being done to meet local needs,» says Summerauer. For example, a project is in the starting blocks to provide teachers with more targeted support in dealing with children with behavioural problems. Among other things, coaching sessions are planned for pupils with behavioural problems. A coaching position will be created for this purpose, whose expertise the teaching staff can draw on.
Consistency is also part of a meaningful setting
Children generally attend Schauenberg School from kindergarten to the end of primary school. «We know the children who are new to the lower or middle school,» says Headmaster Summerauer, «which makes it easier to allocate classes appropriately. For example, we take several children with similar needs together so that we can match the profile of the teaching and support staff and provide the class with the appropriate resources.»
A sensible setting also means consistency: not too many teachers and support staff per class and, if possible, a special needs teacher who takes on team-teaching lessons and acts as a supplement to the class teacher. «That would be the ideal case,» says Summerauer, «but it can't always be realised. In some cases, teachers and support staff have few negotiable demands when it comes to their working days.»
If a teacher unexpectedly needs more support, for example due to difficult classroom dynamics, resources can be increased, says Pelican: «We can provide them with a classroom assistant or draw on the organisation pool, i.e. activate lessons in reserve.»
The crux of the matter with the design pool is the lack of teaching staff. «Often there is no one who can cover the additional demand,» says Pelican. «And it's difficult to find new people in the current school year.» This often makes it difficult to respond flexibly to support needs.
The kindergarten becomes a focal point
This is urgently needed in kindergarten, says Summerauer: «At this level, teachers are faced with challenges that are often impossible for a single person to overcome.» More and more children are showing signs of educational deficits or developmental delays.
Back in 2015, a working group from the Canton of Zurich's education authority looked into behavioural problems in kindergarten. Their report sets out what kindergarten teachers are confronted with: The examples listed are of kindergarten children who are at the level of a toddler, verbally and physically aggressive, who throw themselves on the floor or cannot use the toilet independently, who scream for up to two hours at a time and cannot move safely, who refuse everything, defecate or do not speak for months.
More and more kindergarten children are showing signs of developmental delay or educational deficits.
The report cites parental factors such as «neglect and overprotection, lack of stimulation or overstimulation (including media consumption) and difficult family circumstances» as possible causes.
Summerauer is convinced that schools alone cannot make up for this development gap. There also needs to be a discussion about the role of kindergarten. «If its function is to continue to be to prepare children for first grade, then a preliminary stage is needed that enables girls and boys to take developmental steps that are appropriate to pre-school age,» he says. «We see what happens when such failures are shifted to kindergarten: Children arrive at school who are not ready for it.»
