Julie Helen: A step towards making education inclusive for all

A FEW days ago, Minister Simon Harris announced 10 different courses across various Higher Education institutions that are aimed specifically at people with intellectual disabilities. There is an initial three year funding stream as a pilot.

The stand-out thing is all of the courses will be on the National Framework of Qualifications. The fact that these new courses are on the same framework we all benchmark ourselves from, means everyone is on the same merry-go-round, for better or for worse.

When I watched Minister Harris announce the new courses as Minister for Higher Education, I felt like there was an important shift. It wasn’t the Minister for ‘Special Education’ over in their own corner making a special dispensation for students with intellectual disabilities so that they can ‘experience’ third level education. It was our mainstream Minister, who is responsible for all third, Higher and further education, saying, ‘You are important, you belong with everyone else, your future is important to all people with intellectual disabilities’.

In the videos I saw, Simon Harris spoke about being the brother of someone whose future in education was at one point uncertain and what that felt like for his family. 

I have never met the man, but I wanted to hug him. He ‘gets’ it. He understands the importance of being included and that it needs to happen in a real way.

Up until the new courses were announced, there were only a few opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities in our universities and colleges. Diarmuid, my brother, is one such lucky individual who holds a place on the idplus programme in UCC. He loves it. He feels like he belongs in UCC and has the hoodies and keep cup coffee mugs to prove it.

He is studying in the area of advocacy, inclusion and human rights. Many of the new courses scattered across the country will also offer similar and hopefully, pilot projects end further opportunities will emerge.

A sense of belonging is so important. When Diarmuid is talking to somebody he hasn’t seen in a while, he will immediately tell them all about UCC, he’s so proud, but it’s also a subject of common ground, he gets to be the same as his siblings, the same as most people he meets.

I have campaigned for and in inclusive education for a long time, I realise the power belonging has and how it minimises difference. Being inclusive means we can all learn with the support we need and use that learning in the way that suits us best. We can set and reach different goals and each element of education leads us somewhere else.

When Simon Harris made his announcements recently, he also made videos and addressed them to people with intellectual disabilities in the language of Inclusion and belonging.

He dedicated his announcement to a mother of a young person with an intellectual disability who struggled without a service during locked down. He was very straightforward in the words he used when explaining how people struggled without somewhere to go and how he wants everyone to find the right place for them.

When I was in school and college, I did not experience truly inclusive education. I participated as much as I could in the education that was already there, but I didn’t quite fit in the box. I survived, just about. I am so thrilled that young people with and without disabilities can thrive in education now, not just survive. There will always be improvements we can make to make things more inclusive, but I have huge hope in my heart at this giant step in the right direction to make education inclusive for all.