Page 168 - RUICHSS 2023 Proceeding

University of Ruhuna ISSN: 2706-0063
Matara, Sri Lanka

teachers are not only asked to enhance students’ learning outcomes, but also

to support their social and emotional development.

Social and emotional competencies are important for success at school and in

life, including the ability to understand and manage emotions, achieve positive

goals, show caring and concern for others, establish and maintain positive
relationships, and make responsible decisions (Mahoney et. all, 2020). They

are related to academic achievement, prosocial behaviour, and positive
attitudes toward school, self, and others (e.g., Durlak et al., 2011). Therefore,

the development of social and emotional competencies of all students is one
of the important goals of inclusive education.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH), inclusive education started in 2004,

primarily focusing on placing the students with mild disabilities in a general
education classroom, and providing the necessary support concerning

academic needs of children with disabilities (Dizdarević et al., 2017). The
legislation regarding inclusive education is positive and affirmative, but

implementation faced many obstacles. Bišćević et al. (2017) have reported that

regular education teachers believe that the greatest obstacle to inclusion is the
shortage of experts in regular schools who are professionally trained to work

with students with Special Educational Needs (SEN). It is of utmost
importance to support regular education teachers in their efforts to support all

students in their classes. Many (48.5 %) teachers in that study also pointed to

the need for additional training in inclusive education (Bišćević et al., 2017).
Insufficient resources for the implementation of inclusive education are

reflected in the lower quality of education (Žic Ralić, et al., 2020), which can
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