Fundación Secretariado Gitano

Save the Children, Fundación Secretariado Gitano and CERMI join forces to call for urgent action against school segregation and for inclusive education [editar]

• Education

Fundación Secretariado Gitano, the Spanish Committee of Representatives of People with Disabilities (CERMI) and Save the Children have created the Alliance for Inclusive Education and against School Segregation to join forces and condemn the lack of opportunities caused by school segregation in Spain. During a telematic press conference held this past Thursday, the three organisations presented #AlColeJuntos2030, an initiative that includes a series of proposals to reverse school segregation and move towards a truly inclusive education system.

The three partners highlight that the current situation of the education system still allows legal — or de facto — school segregation, resulting in many children lacking equal opportunities on the basis of ethnicity, origin, socio-economic status or disability. They also warn that segregation has been aggravated by the Covid-19 crisis and the subsequent confinement and months-long closure of schools, urging the Government and public administrations to take the necessary steps to reverse this situation as children return to school in September.

Furthermore, Fundación Secretariado Gitano, CERMI and Save the Children denounce that the treaties and conventions on human rights of the United Nations, the institutions of the European Union, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), among others, have been recommending policies against school segregation for many years and calling on Spain to act against this problem and the serious educational inequality it generates. On 23 June, UNESCO released a compelling report on education around the world[1] in which it states that educational inclusion is a moral imperative and a condition for Spain to meet the Sustainable Development Goals for sustainable, equitable and inclusive societies.

The press conference featured participation by the CERMI’s delegate for Human Rights and the International Disability Convention, Jesús Martín; the Director of Awareness and Childhood Policies at Save the Children, Catalina Perazzo; and the Deputy Director General of Fundación Secretariado Gitano, María Teresa Suárez.

In this sense, Jesús Martín, CERMI’s delegate for Human Rights and the International Disability Convention, pointed out that “Spain, together with the rest of the countries of the world, committed itself to implementing Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) to guarantee 'inclusive, equitable and quality education' and to promote 'lifelong learning for all' so as not to leave behind anyone who takes on the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda 2030”. He also added that “the time has come for Spain to fulfil its obligations — both at the state level and in the Autonomous Communities — and take steps to eliminate school segregation and move towards a truly inclusive educational model that embraces human diversity in schools and provides opportunities for all girls and boys to exist, participate and learn in the same spaces, in accordance with human rights standards and the Agenda 2030”.

For her part, Catalina Perazzo, Director of Awareness and Childhood Policies at Save the Children, noted that, currently, there are many children who — because of their family's economic resources and cultural circumstances, their ethnic or national origin or their disability — are heaped into the same schools and restricted from a diverse environment. “We know that 1 out of 10 educational centres is classified as a ghetto, where 9 out of 10 of these schools are public and more than 50% of the students are disadvantaged. We must act now so that segregation based on social origin does not continue to grow in Catalonia or the Community of Madrid”, she said.

 

María Teresa Suárez, Deputy Director General of Fundación Secretariado Gitano, stated that "we three organisations are working together to give a voice to the children who suffer most from school segregation and who need the most support in their educational processes: students with some kind of disability, Roma students, immigrants, and children living in poverty and social exclusion. Inclusive education improves the quality and efficiency of the education system; contributes to the necessary process of socialisation, to knowing and accepting differences and to valuing diversity; and generates social cohesion. Diverse schools prepare people to work and live in teams, companies and societies that are more creative, innovative and productive”, she concluded.

Main demands

Fundación Secretariado Gitano, CERMI and Save the Children propose three key measures that public authorities should implement to reverse the situation before 2030:

1. A reform of the current Spanish Education Law (LOE-LOMCE) that recognises the right to inclusive education and includes concrete measures regarding admission, control and resources to combat school segregation. 
2. A nationwide plan for educational inclusion and preventing school segregation that includes a calendar, objectives, indicators and budget agreed with the Autonomous Communities to eliminate segregation by 2030. 
3. A new comprehensive equal treatment and anti-discrimination law that recognises, prohibits and penalises school segregation as a form of discrimination. 

The Alliance is planning to bring these proposals to the attention of the different parliamentary groups during education reform negotiations. In this sense, in a few days, a parliamentary session will be held with congress members and senators under the title “Towards inclusive schooling: ending school segregation is possible” with the presence of the Director of the recently published UNESCO GEM Report and success stories from Portugal, Belgium and Hungary.

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