Three-Layer Model of the “Right to Inclusive Education” and Its Application to the Analysis of the Education System in Japan

• In Event: Inclusive education policies and higher education

Proposal

1. Problem
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and General Comment No. 4 stipulate the right to education for persons with disabilities and define that inclusive education is the right of all learners. As pointed out in the examination report for Japan on CRPD in 2022, there has been no recognition of inclusive education as a right. (CRPD 2022). Moreover, the report pointed out that the segregated special education system has not been reviewed and the number of children learning in that system has been increasing. One reason for this stagnation on the inclusive education in Japan may be the lack of a theoretical framework to understand and implement the “right to inclusive education” in the context of national or municipal policies (Yoshitoshi et al 2022). On the other hand, this difficulty to understand the “right to inclusive education” on the policy context appears to be a problem not only for Japan but also for other countries as shown in the stagnation of inclusive education among them (Powell 2014; Hardy and Woodcock 2023; de Beco 2022). Therefore, a theoretical framework to concretely understand “right to inclusive education” in policy contexts is required for implementation of the inclusive education in Japan and other countries.
Considering this situation, this paper aims to propose a “three-layer model of the right to inclusive education” as one theoretical framework. Then, using the Japanese educational system as an example, I will examine what problems are confronting to the realization of the “right to an inclusive education” for children with disabilities based on this three-layer model.

2. Objectives and Methods of this Study
　The purpose of this study is to show the three-layer model of the “right to inclusive education” and examine the effectiveness of this model by analyzing the educational system for children with disabilities in Japan by using it. The research method is basically legal analysis of the conceptions of the CRPD and Japanese educational system. However, in clarifying the current state of the education for children with disabilities in Japan, I will utilize and analyze publicly available statistical data on Japanese education.

3. The Right to Inclusive Education and Three-Layer Model Theory
　Hamamoto (2024) reviewed the contents of the CRPD and General Comment No. 4, and examined the description on the rights to education on them. In that article, he examined the essential meaning of inclusive education as “a fundamental right of all learners (children) (rather than a right of their parents)” in General Comment No. 4. Based on this examination, he summarized the “right to inclusive education” as the right that children themselves have before the ideas of the adults around them (including their parents) to receive a quality education together with other children, without segregation, in schools of their community.
　Given this definition of the right is correct, what kind of systems and educational practices are necessary to guarantee this right? In order to examine this in detail, I would like to present a conceptual model that divides this right and its guarantee into three nested layers（stages) in order to progressively realize inclusive education at the compulsory education stage (primary and secondary levels). I call this conceptual model as the three-layer model of the right to inclusive education. Let me explain the model below.
The third layer, the outermost, is the first stage of the right, “all children, including children with disabilities, have access to (some form of) public education system at the primary and secondary levels. The second layer is “all children, including children with disabilities, can attend the schools (elementary and secondary) in their community. In other words, this second layer is “no child is denied enrollment in their local public elementary and secondary schools on the basis of their disability”. Finally, the first layer (innermost) is that “all children, including children with disabilities, can learn and grow together with their peers in the schools and classrooms. These three-layered rights are nested, and is built on the assumption that the further one moves toward the center (the first layer), the more substantial inclusion is realized.

4. Challenges for Inclusive Education in Japan based on this Model: Japanese Case
　Japan still maintains a segregated education system, including special support schools and special support classes within regular schools (Ikehara 2019; Yoshitoshi et al 2024). Currently, in many municipalities of Japan, children with disabilities receive school enrollment counseling at the time before enrollment, and the committees that examine school placement still have significant authority over each child's school placement decision on the children with disabilities. In this respect, there is a barrier to guaranteeing the second layer of the rights “enrollment in a community school. Even if a child with disability can to enroll in a regular school, he or she is required to enroll in a special support class to receive support for leaning. The learning opportunities for children with disabilities to study with mainstream children are called “exchange and joint learning,” and the number of hours of which should be less than half of the total class hours according to the current government policy (Hamamoto 2023). While there are some more institutional barriers to the inclusion on the aspects of learning (Kaizu and Tamaki 2024), these provisions mean that the guarantee of the first-layer right to learn with mainstream children is systematically difficult. In the session at the conference, I will show further analysis on the problems of inclusive education in Japan based on the three-layer model.

Author

• Nobuhiko Hamamoto, Kwansei Gakuin University