Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – The number of pupils with special educational needs has increased in North Rhine-Westphalia. In the past school year there were 144,280 children and young people with special needs and thus 2.4 percent more than in the school year 2020/21, the state statistics office IT.NRW announced on Tuesday in Düsseldorf. A total of around 1.9 million children and young people went to school in NRW, 7.7 percent of whom had special educational needs.
More than half of them (79,765) were taught in special schools. The other, almost half, is referred to as the “inclusion rate” – this is about children and young people who are at general schools and who sit side by side with classmates without special needs.
This inclusion rate – i.e. the proportion of children with special needs who are at general schools in relation to the total number of children with special needs – was 44.7 percent in the past school year. It was almost unchanged (school year 2020/21: 44.6 percent). Ten years ago, the figure was significantly lower at 24.6 percent. After that, it initially rose sharply, but has only been rising slightly for a number of years.
