According to a study published on friday by education researcher klaus klemm, the extensive implementation of the UN convention on so-called inclusion will cost an additional 660 million euros per year nationwide. The bottom line is that more than 9,300 new teachers would have to be hired to implement the plans over the next decade, according to a study commissioned by the bertelsmann foundation in gutersloh.
Three years ago (26. March 2009), the UN convention came into force, requiring the abandonment of the current special education system. Currently, there are almost half a million behaviorally, learning or physically challenged students in germany who require special attention. Nationwide, the percentage of ford students receiving inclusive education rose from 20.1 percent to 22.3 percent in 2010/2011 compared to the previous year, according to the study.
There are, however, major differences between the federal states. The front-runner is schleswig-holstein. Here, 49.9 percent of all schools with learning or physical disabilities attend a regular school. Lower saxony brings up the rear with only 8.5 percent. Hamburg and bavaria have recently made particularly strong progress.
The sum calculated by klemm refers only to the additional personnel costs, not, for example, to the removal of the tree. In addition, there were costs for around 85,000 schools that are particularly difficult to integrate into regular schools, which the education economist initially factored out.
Inclusion presents schools with "huge challenges that they can only meet with sufficiently well-trained staff," said jorg drager, member of the board of the bertelsmann foundation. The sum of 660 million euros is slightly less than two percent of the total costs of schools today. "Inclusion is necessary and affordable."Inclusion is also necessary because the prospects of graduating from a formal school are slim.
"But it will fail where countries see it as a savings model," warned drager. The money and the positions that will be freed up by the changeover at existing ford schools will not be sufficient if the scope of the requirement is not to be reduced.