LEARNING OUTCOMES AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION OF STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

The paper investigates the possibilities of the application of learning as a criterion for the evaluation of inclusive education of students with intellectual disabilities. Inclusive education is a specific approach to the inclusion of persons with intellectual disabilities in formal education, and is thus based on human rights. Learning outcomes are recently becoming an important instrument of educational policy, especially as a criterion for education evaluation. The analysis of the possibility to apply learning outcomes as a criterion for the evaluation of inclusive education has shown that difficulties arise as a result of the inconsistency between the value argumentation of inclusive education on one hand, and the argumentation directed towards the outcomes on the other; the difficulties connected with the measurement and comparison of learning outcomes of students with intellectual disabilities; and the infeasibility of learning outcomes to include social effects of inclusive education. Due to these problems, the application of learning outcomes as a criterion of inclusive education leads to the downsizing of resources intended to the implementation of inclusive education, and reduces the inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities in regular schools.