Before the Term Ends: An Inclusion Check for School Leaders

By: Vicky Wilson-Woko, M.Ed

Your school says it is inclusive. It may be written in your brochure, displayed on your website and repeated at every parents' orientation. But walk into one of your classrooms on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon, and ask yourself honestly: what would you see?

Would you see the learner with autism taking part in the lesson, or sitting at the back with a colouring sheet? Would you hear the teacher adapting instructions, or repeating the same words louder? Would you find a child who needs support receiving it, or a child who has simply learnt to be invisible?

The term is drawing to a close. Report cards will soon be written, and the holidays are near. Before then, you have an opportunity that many school leaders miss: to check whether inclusion in your school is a practice or merely a promise.

Why Your Leadership Decides the Outcome

You may think inclusion happens in classrooms, and it does. But whether it happens at all is largely decided in your office. After reviewing decades of research, Leithwood et al. (2020) restated one of the field's strongest conclusions: school leadership is second only to classroom teaching as an influence on what pupils learn. Leaders shape learning mainly through the conditions they create for teachers.

Inclusion is no exception. Ainscow (2020) argues that inclusion is not a programme you add to a school but a continuing process of identifying and removing barriers to the presence, participation and achievement of every learner. That process depends on the culture you build, the priorities you set and the questions you keep asking.

In other words, your teachers will rarely be more committed to inclusion than you are. They watch what you check, what you praise, what you fund and what you ignore. Your actions, far more than your policy documents, tell them whether inclusion truly matters.

Your Inclusion Check

Set aside an hour this week. Use the questions below, and answer them with evidence rather than impressions.

☐ Vision: Can every member of staff explain what inclusion means in your school? Look for: consistent answers when you ask teachers, not just a policy on file.

☐ Teacher capacity: Have your teachers received practical training on supporting diverse learners this year? Look for: training records, and strategies you can see being used in lessons.

☐ Classroom practice: Are learners with special needs taking part in lessons, or merely present? Look for: adapted tasks, thoughtful seating, visual supports and differentiated questions.

☐ Support systems: Does every learner who needs support have a written plan that is actually reviewed? Look for: individual plans with dates, targets and progress notes.

☐ Parents: Do parents of learners with special needs feel welcome and informed? Look for: regular meetings, and honest feedback when you ask them.

☐ Belonging: Do learners with special needs have friends, roles and a voice in school life? Look for: participation in clubs, assemblies, leadership roles and events.

☐ Referral: Do your staff know what to do when they suspect a learner needs assessment? Look for: a clear referral route and records of actions taken.

If you struggled to find evidence for several rows, do not be discouraged. You have just found where your leadership is most needed.

Three Uncomfortable Truths

First, your teachers' attitudes are shaped by the support you give them. A widely cited review found that teachers were more positive about inclusion when they had training, resources and support, and more resistant when they felt left alone with it (Avramidis & Norwich, 2002). If some of your staff seem unwilling, ask yourself whether they are unwilling or simply unequipped.

Second, a shadow teacher is not an inclusion strategy. In many Nigerian schools, inclusion begins and ends with assigning a learner a shadow teacher or support assistant. Support staff can be valuable, but research from England found that pupils who received the most support from teaching assistants often made less progress than similar pupils with less, partly because the assistant gradually replaced the teacher rather than supplementing them (Blatchford et al., 2012). Every learner in a class is that class teacher's responsibility. Make sure your staff know it.

Third, other parents will test your resolve. Some parents will object to their children sharing a classroom with neurodivergent learners. How you respond tells your whole community what your school truly stands for. Clear communication, evidence and calm conviction will serve you far better than quiet compromise.

This Is Not Optional: Your Legal Responsibilities

Inclusion is not only good practice; in Nigeria, it is the law. The Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018, signed in January 2019, prohibits discrimination on the ground of disability by any person or institution, and that includes your school. The Act affirms the right of persons with disabilities to education without discrimination or segregation, and requires public schools at every level to be inclusive of and accessible to persons with disabilities.

The Act also gave institutions a five year transition period to make their buildings and services accessible. That period ended in January 2024. Yet the head of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities has estimated that about 85% of Nigerian schools remain inaccessible to persons with disabilities (Inclusive News Network, n.d.).

The Act sits alongside the National Policy on Special Needs Education, adopted in 2015 (Federal Ministry of Education, 2015). Together, they make one thing clear: refusing admission because of disability, or admitting a learner and then leaving them unsupported, is no longer a matter of school preference. Know these documents. Keep copies in your office. Make sure your admissions process reflects them.

Five Actions Before the Term Ends

1. Walk the classrooms. Spend ten minutes in three lessons this week, watching only for how learners with special needs are taking part. Take notes, not judgements.
2. Listen to your teachers. Ask them one question: "What would help you support every learner in your class better?" Their answers will shape your training plan for next term.
3. Review the plans. Check that every learner who needs an individual plan has one, and that it has been reviewed this term. A plan nobody reads is only paperwork.
4. Speak to three parents. Choose parents of learners with special needs and ask how the term has gone for their child. Listen more than you explain.
5. Set one target for next term. Not ten. One clear, measurable priority, such as training every teacher in differentiation or creating a referral pathway, will achieve more than a long wish list.

☘️☘️☘️

Dear School Leader, the children in your care cannot wait for the perfect budget, the perfect building or the perfect staff. They are learning, or failing to learn, in your classrooms today. You do not need to fix everything before the holidays, but you do need to start. Take the inclusion check, have the honest conversations and set your one target for next term. Your teachers are watching what you prioritise, and your learners are living the results. If you would like support in building a truly inclusive school, Relis Educators Hub is here to help you help every child thrive.

References

Ainscow, M. (2020). Promoting inclusion and equity in education: Lessons from international experiences. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 6(1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2020.1729587

Avramidis, E., & Norwich, B. (2002). Teachers' attitudes towards integration/inclusion: A review of the literature. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 17(2), 129–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/08856250210129056

Blatchford, P., Russell, A., & Webster, R. (2012). Reassessing the impact of teaching assistants: How research challenges practice and policy. Routledge.

Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018 (Nigeria). Source

Federal Ministry of Education. (2015). National policy on special needs education in Nigeria. Federal Ministry of Education.

Inclusive News Network. (n.d.). 85% schools in Nigeria not accessible to persons with disabilities – Lalu. Source

Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2020). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited. School Leadership & Management, 40(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2019.1596077