ABSTRACT
Concern for pupils’ learning has by definition always been at the heart of education. As the education system has developed, consideration for those individuals who showed problems with learning has increasingly become a priority. Gradually a segregated sector of special education emerged to provide an appropriate education service for a small identified proportion (2 per cent) of handicapped pupils. Developments during the 1970s and 1980s expressed in a government report (DES 1978) and legislation (DES 1981) led to a widening of special education by the introduction of the concept of special educational needs and the abolishment of existing categories of handicap. The resulting concept of special educational needs relates now to all pupils in special schools (2 per cent) together with those encountering significant difficulty with learning (approximately 18 per cent) in ordinary schools. This revised statutory framework removed special education from its former isolation and established it as a central concern of all teachers and all schools. In continuing this development the 1988 Education Reform Act requires that ‘all pupils share the same statutory entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum, including access to the National Curriculum’ (DES 1989a).
