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Australian Secondary Education

Decent Essays

Inclusive Education in the Australian Secondary Schools
Secondary school education has been recognized as crucial educational experience for children during their teenager years (Eubanks & Eubanks, 2008). During the period of adolescence, students are experiencing a wide range of changes associated with their physical, social and psychological development. It is also regarded as an important transition for individuals from the primary schooling to post-school life (Foreman, 2011). To support student to manage developmental changes and transition in their young lives, the secondary education system should understand and acknowledge the developmental needs facing the adolescents in their critical phase of adolescent growth and development.
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Pearce and his fellows argue that one of big challenges facing students with special needs is that there is inadequate support of funding for them as they transit from primary education to secondary education. Thus, it seems that inclusion policies in Australia have been implemented inconsistently. Moreover, the Australian Bureau of Statistic (ABS) indicates an increasing number of building special schools (17% to be exactly) compared to regular schools (3%) during the period from 1999 to 2013 (Boyle et al., 2015). The figure seems to reveal that it becomes a greater degree of exclusion that placing students with special needs in the segregated schools. To certain extent, the form of special schools as segregated placements has been maintained currently contradicts the promotion of inclusive education which advocating integrating students with disabilities into regular classroom and schools.
Apart from changeable and inconsistent policies of inclusive education, the interpretation of the concept “inclusion” may affect the current direction of inclusive practices. According to a report from the National Council on Intellectual Disability (NCID) (Australia) submitted to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the old paradigm of exclusion hidden by the inclusive practices and misinterpretation of inclusive principles promoted by the UN convention have set up barriers to prevent the achievement of Australian inclusive education (NCID,

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