With the introduction of the new three-tier system, Luxembourg's Ministry of National Education, Childhood and Youth has invested considerable resources in the care of students with special needs.
The aim is to create a coherent offer that covers the entire country so as to guarantee all concerned students fair access to quality services geared to their individual needs.
Thus, for the start of the 2018-2019 school year, the Ministry has hired 221 additional staff, assigned at local, regional and national levels. This reinforcement has made it possible to improve the care of pupils both in quantitative terms (more students) and also in qualitative terms (more intensive care).
The system put in place is therefore a real added value not only for the students concerned, but also for the teachers, who can now rely on the presence of specialised staff to better support the students.
At local level
84 teachers specialising in the care of pupils with special needs (I-EBS), 36 of whom are recruited for the start of the 2018-2019 school year, are now available to schools. This number will be increasr to 150 by 2020. The I-EBS intervene directly in class, with the pupils concerned.
At the regional level
Special Needs Student Support Teams (ESEBs, formerly multi-professional teams) have started working with students in schools. They monitor pupils with special needs in collaboration with the schools and intervene in the classroom, in cases where the support by the schools is not sufficient to meet the needs of the students concerned.
For the start of the 2018-2019 school year, an additional 65 people were recruited for the needs of the ESEBs, including 26 educational and diagnostic psychologists and 39 educators graduated for classroom assistance. Thanks to these efforts, the care of pupils has been reinforced, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
• In 2018-2019, an additional 219 students are supported compared to 2017-2018.
• 266 students who have already received care in 2017-2018 benefit from the same amount of classroom assistance in 2018-2019.
• 249 students who have already received care in 2017-2018 benefit from increased support in 2018-2019.
On a national level
In accordance with the new law of 20 July 2018 establishing centres of expertise in educational psychology specializing in inclusive education, a multi-year recruitment plan has been drawn up to ensure the care of students with special needs.
In 2018, 127.5 additional posts were created for the needs of the nine centres of competence in specialised psychopedagogy, of which 120 have already been occupied since the start of the academic year.
289 students benefit from rehabilitation (speech therapy and psychomotility / occupational therapy) offered by the Competence Centres.
223 students benefit from specialised outpatient care. This number will change further in the coming weeks as the analysis of applications by the National Inclusion Commission (CNI) is still ongoing. Since the start of the school year, the CNI has met nine times.
