Despite progress, segregated education persists in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia

Today, the regional edition of the GEM Report on inclusion and education in Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia has been released in Russian, with an executive summary version produced in almost 30 regional languages, from Albanian to Uzbek and from Latvian to Georgian.

A regional webinar and region-wide media release called on countries to shed one of the most poignant legacies of the second half of the 20th century: segregated education, once wrongly regarded as an efficient solution. All means all, produced by the GEM Report, the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education and the Network of Education Policy Centers, shows that in 15 out of 30 education systems, school admission depends on medical-psychological assessment and other selection procedures. While there has been progress, for instance as the percentage of children with disabilities in special schools fell from 78% in 2005/6 to 53% in 2015/6, segregation persists. One in three students with special needs in Central and Eastern Europe is placed in a special school. Even those no longer enrolled in such schools may be placed in other non-inclusive arrangements, such as special classes or home schooling.