The process of educational inclusion in the czech republic: children with complex learning difficulties and romani children: an ‚outsider‘s‘ perspective

This paper is a personal commentary by a Scottish educationalist on educational inclusion and on the perceived systemic educational disadvantage affecting two groups of children in the Czech Republic, Romani children and those with severe, profound and complex learning difficulties. It is also about the dialogues and developments in Czechoslovakia (later the Czech Republic) leading, hopefully, to these children’s greater educational inclusion. The article looks for underlying reasons for the particular routes that the process of inclusion has taken in the Czech lands. The discussion refers to educational theory and to developments in Western Europe and in particular in Scotland. It concludes that progress in educational inclusion in the Czech Republic to date differs for the two groups of children but that in both cases it has been influenced greatly, and will continue to be so, by: • historical and cultural factors in Czech life, including those relating to Czech education in general • the changes in Czech political, social and economic life in the last ten years • the educational needs of the two groups of children as perceived by Czech politicians and other education policy makers and administrators, and • the wider international scene in which the country is now involved.