Fostering inclusive quality education in Finland and Ireland

ended

The project aims to help Finland and Ireland to identify key objectives and plan actions for promoting equitable learning opportunities, improving educational outcomes and increasing access to mainstream education for all children and students. With a particular focus on promoting quality inclusive education, the project aims to increase the two countries’ capacity to design and implement inclusive provision in mainstream education settings. In Finland, the project specifically aims to address existing regional differences in the provision of support measures to all children and students from early childhood to lower-secondary education. In Ireland, the particular aim is to develop a model of inclusion tailored to the Irish education system which seeks to maximise children’s and students’ access to mainstream primary and post-primary education settings, thus reducing the number of special classes and special schools. The project’s multi-country approach will provide the opportunity for peer learning between the relevant authorities in the two project countries. A collaborative, participatory methodology will be used throughout the lifecycle of the project, where stakeholder consultation and co-development will be key to achieving the project objectives. This will contribute to each country’s ownership over the project results that will maximise their impact and sustainability beyond the project. Participating Ministries are expected to endorse the project deliverables through their internal mechanisms that will help them to strengthen stakeholders’ engagement in implementing inclusive support, to develop teachers’ and relevant staff capacity, and to improve awareness of stakeholders towards inclusive education. The tasks and deliverables of the project, and the associated outcomes, should contribute towards increased capacity of the two Ministries to design and implement inclusive provision in mainstream settings.