Ms ?ine Jackson:

I will respond to the question about our position on special classes for autistic children. I will put it into perspective in the current situation. Special classes have increased by about fivefold over the past decade. Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities proposes a model of inclusive education. The committee is in favour of this progressive realisation of rights and is against lifting children out of special classes or special education and putting them into mainstream settings without that broader systemic change because that does not represent the inclusive education model that it is proposing. While there might be a range of models within an inclusive education system, we currently have these two parallel systems without a way for them to meet. Things like home tuition should really only be operating as a limited emergency measure of last resort but it is often called upon. We have problems with transport and children being educated outside their area. We have issues with the current system, which does not have that clear view of what an inclusive education model could look like and how we could make these two paths meet. That is why we are looking forward to the NCSE policy guidance in particular. Perhaps that might provide a view of what is ahead and an idea of how these two paths might converge in order that we have an idea of what an inclusive education system looks like, because at the moment there is a segregated form and we cannot really have that discussion.