28th February 2020 14:59
By Blue Tutors
In the UK, school students classed as having Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND students) are supposed to be given an individual action plan to help them overcome the problems they might encounter at school. There have been many claims recently that we are failing these students because many are not getting their individual action plan early enough after diagnosis, if at all.
We agree that it’s important to support students who will not meet minimum school requirements without that help. However, what about all the other students? Are we too concerned with boosting a group of students it would be ethically uncomfortable not to help, and losing focus on the other groups.
In no way would we claim that funding should be taken from SEND students; every LEA says the opposite needs to happen, but wouldn’t it be great if we could create individual action plans for everyone? Why is it that one group of students are helped to achieve more than if left to their own devices at school, but everyone else isn’t? It’s the opposite of elitist, which isn’t acceptable either, but the same argument can be used to explain why it’s not the best system.
The most obvious problem with action plans for all is a lack of resources. If we currently can’t fund SEND students adequately then how can we do so for every student in primary and secondary school? It’s not an easy solution, but the volume of action plans would make it cheaper per student.
A programme we would really support is a peer mentoring scheme where older students are asked to monitor and help younger students with their action plan. The best way to ensure something is understood is to teach it, and a mass mentoring scheme involving every student in the country would benefit both student and teacher/tutor alike.