Recently, an autistic man in the UK lost a court case over his lack of education when he was rtwelve. During that time, his former school could not deal with his behavior problems. They expelled him, and left him without education for eighteen months before another school was found that would take him. Now, A., as he is referred to in court, claimed damages, but the case cannot go to full trial. The organization representing the man is considering going to the European Court of Human Rights.
This is sad. What is sadder, is that quite a number of students with disabilities are left without education for reasons similar to A.’s. School distritcts excuse lack of education by the argument that they don’t have the resources to educate “difficult” students. Even in countries like the Netherlands, where school attendance is compulsory – I don’t know about the UK -, students are left behind to sit at home.
An educational system should be focused on educating students. When the resources are not available, these should be sought. Children have the rirhg tot education. I see no reason why this should not go for the most “difficult” students.
Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure schools will always be able to find loopholes in the system. In the Netherlands, we have a number of “dustbin” schools which take the unwanted but fail to educate them. If the “dustbin” schools don’t want you, you can just be refused entry to the classroom. It is rather enraging how sometimes the most vulnerable students are denied an education they most definitely need. Makes me wonder, for once, how economically feasible this is.
That is appalling. Well said.
And yes, it is compulsory to attend school in the UK from the age of 5 to 16.
Unlike much of mainland Europe, it is only education – not school attendance – which is compulsory in the UK. British parents may decide to have their children educated in any way that they see fit, including homeschooling. Arguably, this could be said to make it easier for local authorities to avoid responsibility for educating children who have experienced unacceptable difficulties in school, because if things get bad enough then it is acceptable for children to be withdrawn from school. I mean no disrespect to those parents who actively want to homeschool; it’s one thing to choose this path freely, but a separate issue when parents who want to send their child to school are unable to do so because the school isn’t safe for a particular child.