Pupils with SEN - an international comparison

A conundrum that a lot of education systems internationally have been struggling with is the large increase in pupils with, or identified as having, Special Educational Needs(SEN). Over the past ten years, the number of pupils classified as having SEN in Northern Ireland has increased from 21% to 24%, while the percentage of pupils statemented has increased from 4.2% to 5.6% of pupils. This is a worrying trend as it suggests greater needs among children and young people and poses affordability issues to education systems, so in this article I will try to get below the numbers a little bit, by looking at the broader international and in particular, European, picture.