Special Education

I was a teacher a long time ago. In those days special education was kept apart from 'normal' schools. Then there was a big campaign to get all pupils into 'mainstream' education. Our school (just outside Newbury) had a unit introduced into the school. Pupils spent part of the week being taught, and receiving medical attention, in this unit. The remainder was spent with classes of about 30 students. There were variable results. More recently parents, and educationalists have argued both for and against integration - some talking of educational apartheid and neglect, others talking about those with special needs being overlooked with the mainstream system. How can teachers possibly cope with these students in classes of thirty?
Ruth Kelly has a difficult choice, and how can a state system truly afford to be flexible enough to provide for the needs of every pupil of a full range of educational abilities.