Should you claim credit for solving a problem you have helped to create? You may be asking this question about the Credit Crunch. I ask it here in relation to the policy of Inclusion.

In the last ten years an additional 100,000 teaching assistants have been recruited to facilitate Inclusion – I ‘m sure it wasn’t part of the original plan – to help mainstream schools accommodate children with special educational needs; the ones that would otherwise have been educated in the hundred or so special schools closed through Government policy.

I have referred to the huge cost of this in a number of the posts in this Blog, for instance Post 13 Lady Warnock – Thank you for being so honest.

Now read the news item on the Education Page of the BBC website: http://cli.gs/pqr8R

Teaching support ‘raises results’
By Hannah Richardson
BBC News education reporter

Teaching assistant with pupils

The increase in teaching assistants has been linked to better result

Schools that increase spending on teaching assistants have improved results, a report suggests.

But the Training and Development Agency for Schools study says it could be the children who are not getting extra support who are benefiting the most.

This may be because it allows these pupils to concentrate on the teacher, without being distracted by others.

The government said the report showed money spent on teaching assistants had been a good investment.

…

It comes after another report suggested that the greater level of teaching assistant support a child received, the less progress they made.

This is certainly the law of unintended consequences twice over.

Sorry, but I do have to ask. Is Inclusion proving to be a success or a monumental cock-up? You say…. truthfully.

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