Fewer children requiring needs-specific education are being schooled outside of mainstream schools, says the Ministry of Education. In October the number of pupils in regular schools had risen to 750, now there are around 1000.
The majority of children not in regular schools attend the Centre for Intellectual Development, where the number of pupils has fallen since the last school year, according to Lex Folscheid, advisor for the Ministry of Education.
The decrease is a sign that the education reforms are working, as the overall aims were to reduce or avoid exclusion for the pupils in question, by increasing resources and support for schools.
Integration
Specialists at local, regional and national level have been working to ensure that educators have all the necessary resources to hand to help pupils with additional needs integrate into regular classes.
Parents in Luxembourg have the ability to choose whether their child attends mainstream schooling or outside education, so there are further options outside of regular schools to offer support.
This is not because there are more children with additional needs than before, says Folscheid, but there is more of a focus on exploring where the needs may stem from and how they can be supported.
The Ministry of Education is set to recruit more specialists, with 3 posts per regional authority to be created in the next year. However, Folscheid acknowledged that recruitment was proving difficult, as the sector required more development to fulfil posts that historically had not been part of the school system.
Despite this, Folscheid reiterated the need to give each and every pupil the support required to receive adequate education.
