Education For All

Extending access to education is part of a worldwide agenda. The Education for All (EFA) initiative from the United Nations is an essential element of the Millennium Development Goals, in part because education is seen as being crucial to human development, and also because so many children do not have access to education UNESCO. Across the world, there are many reasons why children do not attend school, including high levels of mobility, social conflict, child labour and exploitation, poverty, gender and disability. Many children are at risk of not attending school, or of receiving a sub-standard education. In some parts of the world, schooling is not available because of a shortage of school places, a lack of quality teachers, or because

This has to be understood in the power of education to reduce poverty, to improve the lives of individuals and groups, and to transform societies. Developing 'schools for all ' is important because schooling is linked to human, economic and social development goals. But at the same time, it is apparent that many school systems perpetuate existing inequalities and intergenerational under-achievement. The reasons for this are complex, but it often relates to deeply embedded attitudes to, and beliefs about, human differences. Nevertheless, dealing with exclusion, marginalization and underachievement is not only the right thing to do; it makes sound economic and social sense. Failure to develop schools capable of educating all children not only leads to an educational underclass, but also a social and economic underclass which has serious consequences for society now and in the future. Therefore, the development of successful inclusive schools, 'schools for all ' in which the learning and participation of all children is valued, is an essential task for all countries. It is hardly surprising therefore that tackling under-achievement and increasing inclusion are part of a worldwide agenda. As a result of this interest, a series of national and international initiatives intended to broaden participation for vulnerable groups of children have been enacted. These include

Mainstream educational reform initiatives designed to raise standards can be both a facilitator and a barrier to the education of children with learning needs. In many cases these two strands of policy development, inclusion on the one hand and higher standards on the other, do not necessarily make comfortable partners. On the one hand it can be argued that higher standards are good for all children because schools are held accountable for the progress of all learners. On the other hand, it has been argued that the difficulties children experience in learning are a consequence of unresponsive education systems. As a result children are often seen as having 'additional support needs ' when there is a discrepancy between what a system of schooling ordinarily provides and what the child needs to support their learning. Thus the professional focus tends to be on what is 'additional to or different from ' the provision which is generally available, rather than on what can be done to make schooling more accessible for all (Florian,