Resolution on the provision of support to children with educational difficulties
The 7th Education International (EI) World Congress meeting in Ottawa, Canada, from 21nd to 26th July 2015:
1. Recalls the importance of quality education for shaping the future (2011 policy paper and 2013 campaign) ;
2. Promotes the need for inclusive education and provides appropriate services adapted to the needs of children in difficulty;
3. Promotes improvements to the quality of education, coupled with trained teachers;
4. Notes that ambitious programmes (EPT and goals for 2015) helped to considerably increase the number of children enrolled in preschool and primary education;
5. Notes that more and better trained teachers and smaller classes contribute to improve student success in education;
6. Affirms that the number of enrolled students and the duration of schooling must not lead to underestimating another aspect, that of their success;
7. Affirms that it is therefore necessary to provide assistance for students with educational difficulties given that they will face many obstacles during their schooling;
8. Is concerned about the number of students leaving school after several years of schooling while still not having mastered the skills required to enable them to communicate, to be autonomous, and to pursue schooling in a secondary education establishment in good conditions.
9. Considers that, in certain countries, the excessive medicalisation of such difficulties is not an appropriate solution given the risk of locking children into their difficulties and the fact that it is not accessible for all families;
The 7th World Congress decided that EI will:
10. Organize initiatives (seminars, conferences, highlighting researchers' work, etc.) at different levels (global, regional) in order to identify educational difficulties prevention schemes and educational difficulties remediation methods, for the purpose of ensuring that educational difficulties do not become permanent;
11. Draw upon the post-2015 education goals in order to ensure that this resolution is brought to a successful conclusion
12. Urge affiliates to require their governments to:
a. act in order to ensure that prevention and remediation schemes are implemented in all schools;
b. train teachers to identify educational difficulties as soon as possible and to provide all the assistance they are able to provide;
c. train specialized teachers who are able to intervene when educational difficulties are too great to be resolved by the class' teacher.
