%L discovery10062049
%A ZM Walker
%A S Musti-Rao
%J Global Education Review
%O This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited
%X Building an inclusive society in which all people can participate effectively and live together requires
understanding inclusive education and its impact on the social order. As countries of different regions
face the vast array of challenges unique to their educational systems, it becomes apparent that inclusive
societies are intricately tied to social inclusion policy initiatives and developments in education.
Governments are becoming increasingly aware of the need to review their educational systems as they
attempt to define what an inclusive society is and how to make inclusion truly effective. Singapore is a
unique example of a country that has the resources and the vision, but currently lacks an educational
system designed to fully include individuals with special needs. Although Singaporean students
consistently score near the top in science, math, and reading achievement on international assessments,
many students with special needs still receive their education in schools separated from their mainstream
peers. In 2004, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong discussed a new vision of Singapore becoming an
inclusive society that embraces all individuals with special learning needs. In this manuscript, the authors
provide a brief history of Singapore and its education system and explore how PM Lee’s vision of an
inclusive society has shaped practice and policy in Singapore schools in the last decade. Specific ideas and
next steps for creating an inclusive Singapore for individuals with disabilities are discussed.
%P 14-31
%D 2016
%K inclusive society, inclusion, Singapore, education, special needs, social inclusion, education policy
%N 3
%T Inclusion in High-Achieving Singapore: Challenges of Building an Inclusive Society in Policy and Practice
%V 3