Statement in Response to Senator Pauline Hanson’s Recent Comments on Students with Autism in Mainstream Schooling.

Autism West strongly disagrees with Senator Hanson’s statements on students with Autism in mainstream schooling.

The United Nations Conventions of Human Rights advocate the right of an individual regardless of challenges to an appropriate education and potential to live life to their potential.

There is evidence suggesting the inclusion of students with autism has a beneficial effect on their mainstream peers.

UNESCO’s Four Pillars of Learning are;

• Learning to know
• Learning to do
• Learning to be
• Learning to live together

An exclusion strategy does a disservice to all students in the class as exclusion doesn’t educate any of these young citizens of our future society in how to live together.

Autism West are not advocating that one approach is better than the other, but that:

• Teachers need to be trained, resourced and valued for their role in todays modern and diverse classrooms which reflect our society
• There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach – it’s about having informed choices that fit the child’s needs
• That families have a right to choose an appropriate education as they see fit.

Autism West welcomes Media Enquiries. Contact Janine Ripper, our Marketing and Communications Coordinator, on marketing@autismwest.org.au or 0417 91 66 55.