Attitudes of the professional and general public to inclusive education in the context of general attitudes towards tracking

Abstract

Starting with the 2016/2017 school year, the system of support for children with special educational needs was significantly modified. The purpose of this adjustment was to allow regular schools to have the means to care for such children. The treatment referred to as common or inclusive education has been widely criticized in the media, where it has been repeatedly interpreted as an attempt to abolish special schools. The aim of this article is to present the results of surveys among elementary school teachers and the general public examining attitudes towards inclusive education in the context of tracking in the education system in general. The surveys took place roughly a year after the measures were put into practice and involved representative samples of 500 teachers and 500 adults. The results show that in recent years support for differentiation has increased as has uncertainty among elementary school teachers in terms of the desirable structure of the education system. Public attitudes are contradictory and point to a lack of available information.