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In Australia there has been a slight shift away from mainstream schools since 2003. Students with disability have begun to attend specials schools at an increasing rate instead of participating in mainstream programs in schools. By 2015, there was an increase of 33% of students with disability attended a special school. Students with disability attending mainstream schools had decreased by 22% in the same time frame. This change in school attendance is likely a reflection of experiences students with disability are having in each respective type of school. Students with disability could be finding special schools to have more adequate support for the severity or type of disability they have. Students with disability are still more commonly attending mainstreaming schools, despite the current shift towards special schools. This preference could be accredited to the improvement within the Australian education system when mainstreaming students regarding providing students with resources and tailored supports.

Sri Lanka Context

Access to special education for students with disabilities were introduced to Sri Lanka with the General Education Reforms of 1997. This piece of legislation includes 19 reforms that improved the development of curricula and teacher training, in addition to special education access. The changes made in Sri Lanka’s education system that were created by this reform were to allow students to have wider spread access to special education using mainstreaming programs. In 2000, the majority of classes offered for students with disabilities were only accessible in special education units. During the same time period, children with disabilities who were of school age did not or were not able to access education at very high rates. Boys with disabilities accessed education at a higher rate than girls, with boys having a rate of 59.5% and only 40.5% for girls.

The Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was finally ratified in Sri Lanka in 2016, which was a step in the right direction regarding the importance and rights of disabled students in the classroom. Though Sri Lanka mainstreaming programs have the intention for inclusion of students with disabilities into mainstream education, the country of Sri Lanka has not yet made enough considerable progress to implement any type of effective disability rights law. This has led to a lack of framework for mainstreaming programs, as well as rights, for disabled students in this country.

A major issue in Sri Lanka when attempting to implement mainstreaming education is the confusion regarding what mainstreaming is. There is a lack of clarity regarding the terminology including how terms such as inclusion and integration are used interchangeably. The issues regarding the lack of direction and understanding with mainstreaming programs stems from the newness of such programs in Sri Lanka. Teachers in Sri Lanka find that when working in mainstreaming classrooms they are underprepared to manage students with disabilities as they were not taught mainstreaming strategies when they were pre-service or in-service training. The education system in Sri Lanka is additionally lacking in teaching support in the classroom and little collaboration between teachers and special education teachers in schools. To create a productive mainstreaming environment, these factors must be addressed and corrected in order to improve on mainstreaming programs in Sri Lanka.