In this edition of Inclusive Education we begin a discussion of the issue of Reading and Inclusion - which will flow over to subsequent editions.
The Commonwealth Minister for Education, Dr Brendan Nelson, invited the National Council on Intellectual Disability (NCID) on to the Reference Group for the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy. Darrell Wills was asked by NCID to represent its constituents on the Reference Group and prepare a preliminary submission for discussion with the community, the committee and reference group of the Inquiry.
Reading is one of the most critical developmental issues in the inclusion in the richness of Australian society. As the country moves further down the path towards becoming a knowledge nation, the gap between those that can and cannot read becomes more and more a gap between those that can take their place and those who cannot.
As a nation, we have moved considerably past the dark times where people with disability labels were thought to be "uneducable" to a space where they are now being increasingly welcomed into the schools and workplaces, homes and communities of their peers.
In the last decades our schools and support systems have increased the numbers of people with disability labels who are able to read, some even before entering school. This is truly an amazing development and a tribute to our finest educators who have taken up the challenges of putting reality to the theory of all can read.
For those Australians who find literacy easy, such a humble goal may not seem so much but for many people with disability labels, gaining their passports to literacy is gaining a passport to a better Australian life.
We believe there are still a number of systemic and professional barriers for this goal to be realised for all. This preliminary response has been prepared in light of the Inquiry's desire to move to an evidence-based evaluation model for children who have difficulties with reading.
While we agree broadly with this thrust, we have focussed on the more humble goal of assisting those who cannot read to do so. We appreciate this goal is less than that of the terms of reference and yet we have not made this small step for all and thus we confined our comment to achieving this outcome.
We acknowledge the leadership of the Minister in addressing this critical issue. We look forward to developing constructive actions to bring about literacy outcomes for all of those children whom the current system is failing to assist potently enough to step upon the pathway to literacy.
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