Education for persons with special needs: Polish and Russian experience

© Author(s).The beginning of the 21st century is marked by systemic, economic and social transformations in Poland and Russia, that significantly affected the education system, including the education for persons with special needs. This paper is an attempt to present synthetically the changes relating to persons with disabilities. The current state of the education for children and youth with special needs will be considered due to the new education system, legal regulations, the school population, type of disability of pupils and the kinds of schools they attend. Compulsory education, which includes the level of primary and lower secondary schools, will be subject to a separate analysis. The article presents significant systemic changes in Polish and Russian education and the state development strategy in the sphere of social policy towards persons with disabilities. The new documents are analyzed that have led to important changes in policy direction with serious consequences in terms of the structure and curriculum of inclusive education in both countries. The paper introduces a review of the changes in policy direction with serious consequences in terms of the structure and curriculum of education for persons with special needs. A key objective of the paper will be to examine the new approaches to education of disabled persons in Russia and Poland and the subsequent changes in it