Access to education and employment for persons whose learning abilities are well below average is very difficult, with only a few intellectually disadvantaged people having employment in the entire country.
According to official figures, 64 per cent of the 15,000 children with physical and intellectual disabilities are included in regular education.
Specialists, however, believe that a mere 1.5 per cent of such children are actually included in regular education, because they do not see special schools as true inclusion, Ljiljana Pintaric Mlinar of the Zagreb School of Rehabilitation Sciences said while presenting the report.
In Croatia, only children with slight intellectual impairment are entitled to education in regular schools, while children with moderate and severe intellectual impairment are referred to special schools or social institutions.
Pintaric Mlinar said there was only one specialist per 2,000 disabled children, and that disabled people were exposed to social prejudice from pre-school age.
She noted that the situation in some European Union countries was not much better, but that in Croatia there were greater problems at local level.
The report urged the government to develop and enforce inclusive legislation that would ensure full integration into society of children with various development disabilities. The Ministry of Education was asked to secure funding and support for disabled children to be given access to regular education throughout the country.