Separate special education developed across Europe in the 19th century, to ensure that all children had access to education. Pupils who could not keep pace and failed in the ordinary classroom situation were largely viewed as having learning difficulties which were best remedied by the expertise of certain teachers working outside of the mainstream classroom, either in a separate school or a special unit attached to the mainstream school. More recently, such a deficit view of these pupils has given way to the arguably more positive concept of pupils having ‘special educational needs’. How these needs are met, however, has been the source of continued debate. Separate special education establishments/units may have better resources, and may be more capable of providing an adequate and individualised education for children with disabilities and particular learning difficulties, than could be provided within mainstream. However, these establishments have increasingly been viewed by parents, educators and policy makers as a means of segregation and stigmatisation.

As a result, the governments of the member countries have become committed to developing educational policies that serve to promote and encourage the integration/inclusion into mainstream education of pupils who would formerly have attended special schools. However, in those countries with an established structure of segregated special education, conversion to mainstream education for all pupils remains problematic. Hence, despite a range of official policies on integration/inclusion across the member states, there is a strong emphasis, for a variety of reasons, on the early categorisation of special needs pupils, and their placement in special schooling.

The nature of impairments of pupils categorised as having special educational needs

The Netherlands has perhaps the most extensive and differentiated system of special education of all the member countries. After a process of professional evaluation, pupils may be referred to one of 15 separate categories of special school. There are segregated special schools for:

• 1. deaf children;

• 2. children with impaired hearing;

• 3. children with severe speech disorders (not in groups 1 or 2);

• 4. blind children;

• 5. partially sighted children;

• 6. physically handicapped children;

• 7. children in hospitals;

• 8. chronically sick children;

• 9. mentally handicapped children;

• 10. infants with development difficulties;

• 11. severely maladjusted children;

• 12. children with learning and behaviour problems;

• 13. children in schools attached to pedagogical institutes;

• 14. children with multiple handicaps;

• 15. severely mentally handicapped children.