Education Minister Nalton Brangman has tabled a discussion paper to generate public feedback on plans to bring Bermuda’s education system into the new millennium.The report, ‘Inclusive and Special Education, Getting It Right for Every Child, A Discussion Paper’, launches a public consultation on inclusive and special education.According to the Minister “traditional approaches to inclusion often meant that children with disabilities were physically included in regular schools and classrooms”. Inclusion in Bermuda was a start, he said, but by no means “the end to providing better education”.“Where it isn’t working, the status quo is not acceptable,” said Sen Brangman.“We believe that there are some serious challenges in capacity, knowledge and skills that require external and independent assistance.”Internal and external reviews will be conducted and the results published.“We believe that this is needed to both drive change in some very specific technical areas, but also so that staff, students, parents, helping agencies and other advocates can help to hold us accountable.”The paper “acknowledges what parents, advocates and helping agencies have been saying since the move to inclusion — that so much more is needed to give children true opportunities to be successful, in school and beyond”.“We believe that a radically different approach is needed; therefore, we propose to bring education in Bermuda fully into the 21st Century through inclusive and special education.”“The best defence against low achievement for any child, is a public education system that provides high quality education to all,” said the Minister.“Any child can be born gifted, with barriers to learning or both. Any child can experience divorce, or have an accident or be a victim of trauma.“Any child can be bullied or become a bully, excel at one subject and struggle in another. Any child can know that they are somehow different, but every child should know that they are unique.“Despite good intentions, Bermuda moved to a system of ‘inclusion’ without becoming truly ‘inclusive’. This we now propose to do in the broadest of terms,” said Sen Brangman.“Today, inclusion is no longer a physical place where children who have disabilities are educated like a regular classroom or a mainstream school. Inclusion is now — as defined by the United Nations — both a broader goal and a process of transformation in order to respond to the diversity of all learners.“The discussion paper is the fundamental obligation of the public education system to serve the needs of all learners — including those who are gifted and/or experience barriers to learning.”It prioritises the changes deemed necessary to ensure that all children have access to high quality education and calls for “specific mandatory processes for children who are at risk of poor learning outcomes regardless of the reason for the risk”.Government has pinpointed 16 priorities in the “greatest areas of need and concern for improvement” in keeping with the framework of rights set out by the United Nations.Changing mindsets on the beliefs and practices of people who work with children to share the vision is listed as the number one priority.“We want everyone to buy into the premise of high quality universal education because every child should receive a good education,” he said.Legislation will be improved “dramatically to better support inclusive and special education to 21st century standards” to bring Bermuda in line with “much of the western world”.The goal is for children up to the age of eight to have a strong foundation for lifelong learning, behaviour and health.“We want all intervention to be early, and not delayed intervention, or worse, missed intervention,” said Sen Brangman.“While there are different options for some children with special education needs, we don’t have a full continuum of appropriate programmes and services for the diversity and complexity of all special education needs.“Often children with particular needs are given the best that we have to offer, as opposed to what is appropriate to their needs. This we intend to change.“Quite simply, we have to open up, to shine the light on our successes and weaknesses to increase knowledge, transparency and accountability for inclusive and special education.”He encouraged the public to review the 70-page document, and give their views, whether they support the direction, or not. The full document is posted online at www.moed.bm.Views can be e-mailed to inclusiveeducation@moed.bm or mailed or delivered to the Ministry of Education. Interested individuals can also call the Ministry at 278-3300.