Inclusive education implies access to education for all, excludes all forms of discrimination, provides equal treatment for everyone, creates unique conditions in the educational system for people with and without special educational needs (SEN). Inclusive education aims to achieve a more flexible approach for learning to meet the diverse educational needs of people.

According to UNICEF (2017), an education system is inclusive if it “includes all students, and welcomes and supports them to learn. Every child has a right to education, including those with disabilities”. This statement is very much in line with UNCRPD General Comment n.4.

While there are many policies and developed legislations promoting de-institutionalization programs and speeding up the progress of inclusive education practices in the republic of Armenia (RA), still, there are barriers at the educational and societal levels, ensuring that children feel included and successfully educated alongside their peers.

Inclusive education has been implemented in the RA since 2005. So, within the framework of the program each child with SEN may attend the school in his/her community. RA National Assembly adopted the "New Law on General Education" in 2014. According to the acting law so called “Universal inclusive education” (which means in every school), which was adopted in 2016, will be implemented in all educational settings of the RA until 2025, which means that all educational settings will have appropriate conditions and be able to provide education for children with SEN. Starting from 2016, until now the secondary schools of the RA made a gradual transition to inclusive education. At the same time, the “Universal Inclusive education” in the pre-school level is planned to be implemented in 2021-2023 according to the schedule approved by the RA Government.

Republican Pedagogical-Psychological Center, in cooperation with the “Bridge of Hope” NGO conducted large-scale research on the effectiveness of inclusive education in the  public schools of Armenia in 2021. The goal of the research was to find out the views and opinions of all parties involved on the various components of inclusive education (children, parents, teachers, school administrators and other specialists). The results of the research are intended to be used to increase, develop and improve the efficiency of inclusive education in RA.

Research objectives:

1)   Assess the following components of Inclusive education in RA secondary schools:

1. High expectations and respect;
2. Equal participation in the classroom;
3. Promoting educational environment;
4. Inclusion of the educational process;
5. Student-centered planning and mutual trust;
6. Assessment of education results;
7. School-family connection and cooperation;
8. Quality pedagogical-psychological support for the organization of inclusive education;
9. Social relations and mutual assistance;
10. Positive attitude, exclusion of bullying and ridicule;
11. Perspective planning for the future.

2) Compare the assessment of the above-mentioned components of Inclusive education according to the schools of RA.

3) Compare the assessment of the above mentioned components of Inclusive education with the participants in the education process:

• Children with and without SEN;
• Parent of children with and without SEN;
• Teacher, teacher assistant;
• Specialist of the pedagogical-psychological team;
• Principal and deputy director of the school.

4) Compare the assessment of the above components of inclusive education according to the three educational levels of the secondary school.

Quantitative methodology was used as a basis of this research. Based on the purpose and objectives of the research, a multi-level sampling was conducted. Almost equal numbers of respondents from different groups were interviewed in each region, so that the survey results were comparable by regions and by groups of respondents. In each region (urban and rural areas) high, secondary and primary school levels were selected. Purposeful sampling method was used for school selection based on data provide by Regional Pedagogical Psychological Centers (those with relatively large number of students with SEN). Random sampling method was used for selection of 3952 participants from 111 schools in 78 urban and rural areas of RA within the frame of current research. A questionnaire was developed to ensure that all participants had the opportunity to express their agreement/disagreement with the inclusion criteria in order to assess the situation in their school. All the respondents reported agreement/disagreement with each judgment on a five-point scale (1- do not agree at all; 2 - disagree; 3 - “I know”; 4 – agree; 5 - fully agree). The means of the total number of respondents' answers and the percentage indicators calculated were used for comparative analysis․The higher the value of the indicator, the higher the level of agreement of the respondents with the judgment and, consequently, the compliance of the inclusive education with the given standard. Eleven components have been identified for assessing the inclusion of the educational process in schools. Each of them was assessed according from 6 to 17 marks/ subcomponents. To get a summary, average ratios were calculated for each component, and then to ensure comparability, the percentage of agreement was calculated based on the total average score of each component. According to the respondents, the higher the index, the more the implementation of this component meets the criteria of Inclusive Education.

The results of the Survey on the all components are presented in Table 1 Table 1․ Summary of inclusive education components and agreement indicator IE Component Average of totals Maximum possible Indicator Promoting educational environment 10 24 42,6% Perspective planning for the future 8 12 64,6% Assessment of education result 18 26 67,6% Student-centered planning and mutual trust 13 18 70,2% School-family connection and cooperation 20 28 71,4% Inclusion of the educational process 21 28 73,3% Quality PP support for inclusive education 25 34 74,8% Equal participation in the classroom 22 28 76,9% High expectations and respect 11 14 77,4% Positive attitude, exclusion of discrimination and bullying 14 18 78,0% Social relations and mutual assistance 16 20 78,5% According to the results of the research, the following components meet the criteria of inclusion: "Social relations and mutual assistance", "Positive attitude, exclusion of discrimination and bullying" and "High expectations and respect". Inclusive Education "Promoting Educational Environment" component received the lowest marks by the respondents (See Figure 1). Figure 1․ Consent Indicators by IE Components "Promoting educational environment", "Perspective planning of the future" and "Assessment of educational results" components are among the most problematic in all regions. Education in primary schools meets the standards of Inclusive Education more than in secondary and higher education establishments, which may be due to the peculiarities of the organization of education in primary schools. The comparison of the answers of the representatives of different groups of respondents that the most problematic are the following three components of Inclusive Education: 1) Promoting educational environment 2) Perspective planning of the future 3) Assessment of education results Out of the 11 components of Inclusive Education, these are the most corresponding for Inclusion Criteria: "Social relations and mutual assistance", "Positive attitude, exclusion of discrimination and bullying", "High expectations and respect".

1.Tichá, R., Abery, B., Johnstone, C., Poghosyan, A., & Hunt, P. (Eds.) (2018). Inclusive Education Strategies: A Textbook. Minneapolis, MN, USA: University of Minnesota; Yerevan, Armenia: UNICEF Armenia & Armenian State Pedagogical University. 2.UNICEF (2017). Inclusive education: Understanding Article 24 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Geneva, Switzerland. 3.UNICEF (2017). Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia. Retrieved from: https://www.unicef. org/eca/sites/unicef.org.eca/files/IE_summary_accessible_220917_0.pdf 4.https://www.right-to-education.org/resource/general-comment-4-article-24-right-inclusive-education 5.https://www.arlis.am/documentview.aspx?docid=67166 6.https://www.arlis.am/DocumentView.aspx?docid=142606