Inclusive Education in India
Dr. Kumar Sanjeev
Lecturer, P.G.Department of Education
Patna University, Bihar (INDIA)
&
Dr. Khagendra Kumar
Head
Department of Education
Patna University, Bihar (INDIA)
|
India is one
of the few countries world over where the education of children with special
needs doesn’t fall within the purview of human resource development ministry.
It is generally the burden of the omnibus ministry of social justice and
empowerment, the prime focus of which is rehabilitation, not education. In
fact, till today it does not have education as part of its agenda and the
issue of education of children with disabilities remains imperceptible,
hidden from the public domain, a private problem for families and NGOs to
deal with. It’s time that governmental agencies as well as mainstream
institutions woke up to the reality that segregation of children with
challenging needs is morally unjustifiable and a violation of human rights.
Indeed there is no other way to provide education to 36 million disabled children.
Seventy-eight percent of Indian population lives in rural areas without
provision for special schools. Therefore, inclusive schools have to address
the needs of all children in every community and the central and state
governments have to train their teachers to manage inclusive classrooms. |
Introduction:
Inclusive education (IE) is a new approach towards
educating the children with disability and learning difficulties with that of
normal ones within the same roof. It seeks to address the learning needs of all
children with a specific focus on those who are vulnerable to marginalization
and exclusion. It implies all learners – with or without disabilities
being able to learn together through access to common pre-school provisions,
schools and community educational setting with an appropriate network of
support services. This is possible only in flexible education system that
assimilates the needs of diverse range of learners and adapts itself to meet
these needs.
Inclusion is not an experiment to be tested but a
value to be followed. All the children whether they are disabled or not have
the right to education as they are the future citizens of the country. In the
prevailing Indian situation resources are insufficient even to provide quality
mainstream schools for common children, it is unethical and impracticable to
put children with special needs to test or to prove any thing in a research
study to live and learn in the mainstream of school and community (Dash, 2006).
*
The principle of inclusive education was adopted at
the “World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access and Quality”
(Salamanca, Spain 1994) and was restated at the World Education Forum (Dakar,
Senegal 2000). The idea of inclusion is further supported by the United Nation’s
Standard Rules on Equalization of Opportunities for Person with Disability
Proclaiming Participation and equality for all. Of late, a consensus has
emerged among Indian intellectuals and pedagogues for adopting inclusive
education in mainstream schools.
Special Education
Vs Inclusive EDUCATION:
The term “Special Need Education” (SNE) has come into use as
a replacement for the term “Special Education”, as the older one was mainly
understood to refer the education of all those children and youth whose needs
arise from disabilities or learning difficulties. The Statement
affirms: “those with special educational needs must have access to regular
schools which should accommodate them within child centered pedagogy capable of
meeting these needs”.
Moreover, the concept of
“Special Need Education” extends beyond those who may be included in
handicapped categories to cover those who are failing in school for a wide
variety of other reasons that are known to be likely to impede a child’s
optimal progress. Whether or not this more broadly defined group of children
are in need of additional support depends on the extent to which school needs
to support their curriculum, teaching and/or to provide additional human or
material resources so as to stimulate efficient and effective learning for
these pupils. (International Standard Classification of Education ISCED, 1997)
But
marginalization and exclusion of these pupils result in the growth of
inferiority complexes among them and their parents/guardians. This leads the
vision of “Inclusive Education”. Inclusive Education aims at integrated
development of children with special needs and normal children through
mainstream schooling. To develop curriculum for special education and its
inclusion in general teacher preparation programmes, Rehabilitation Council of
India (RCI) made a historic collaboration with National Council for Teacher
Education (NCTE) on January 19, 2005.
Indian scenario:
Till 1990s ninety percent of India’s estimated 40 million children in the age group- four-sixteen years with physical and mental disabilities are being excluded from mainstream education. The overwhelming majority of them are vagabonds not out of volition but because of callous school managements and over-anxious parents of abled children in a travesty of humanity and social justice. They have consistently discouraged children with disabilities from entering the nation’s classrooms. Social justice and equity which are dominant sentiments of the Constitution of India demand that India’s 35 million physically challenged, if not the 5 million mentally challenged, children should be given preferential access into primary and secondary schools. Fewer than five percent of children who have a disability are in schools. Remaining nine-tenths of them are excluded.
Against this backdrop of continuous neglect,
there is an urgent need to find ways for developing potential of this large
proportion of challenged children.
Historical Perspective:
In India special education as a separate system of education for disabled children outside the mainstream education system evolved way back in 1880s. The first school for the deaf was set up in Bombay in 1883 and the first school for the blind at Amritsar in 1887. In 1947, the number of schools for blind increased to 32, for the deaf 30 and for mentally retarded 3. There was rapid expansion in the number of such institutions. The number of special schools rose to around 3000 by the year 2000 (Department of Eduacation, 2000). The Govt. of India in the 1960s designed a scheme of preparing teachers for teaching children with visual impairment. Similar schemes for teaching children with other disabilities were gradually developed. However, the quality of the trained teachers was in question because of lack of uniform syllabi of various courses, eligibility criteria for admission to these courses and also due to large extent of non availability of teacher educators and literatures in the field. Therefore, in 1980s the then ministry of Welfare, Govt. of India, realized the crucial need of an institution to monitor and regulate the HRD programmes in the field of disability rehabilitation.
However, these special schools have certain disadvantages which became evident as the number of these schools increased. These institutions reached out to a very limited number of children, largely urban and they were not cost effective. But most important of all, these special schools segregated children with special needs (CWSN) from the mainstream, thus developing a specific disability culture.
Legislation and Policy:
The Constitution of
India (26 November, 1949), clearly
states in the Preamble that everyone has the right to equality of status and of
opportunity. The Article 41 of the Directive Principles of the Indian
Constitution supports the right to work, education and public assistance in
certain cases including disablement. Further, Article 45 commits to the
provision of free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14
years. Based on this, the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act 2002 has been
enacted by the parliament making education a fundamental right of all children
in the age group of 6-14 years. Moreover the 93rd Amendment to the
Constitution of India (now renumbered as the 86th), passed by the
Lok Sabha on November 28, 2001, makes it mandatory for the government to
provide free and compulsory education to “all children of the age of 6-14
years”, with its preamble clarifying that “all” includes children with
disabilities as well. Yet inevitably again, vital loose ends of such enabling legislation
and policies are not tied up.
The National Policy on
Education, 1986 (NPE, 1986), and the Programme
of Action (1992) stresses the need for
integrating children with special needs with other groups. The objective to be achieved as stated in the NPE, 1986 is
"to integrate the physically and mentally
handicapped with general community as equal partners, to prepare them for normal growth and to enable them to face life with courage
and confidence"
The concept of integrated education in India has
emerged during the mid 1950s. It is based on the medical model of disability
and it emphasizes placement of children with disabilities in mainstream
schools. The major thrust is on attendance.
Consequent on the success of international experiments in placing children with disabilities in regular schools, the Planning Commission in 1971 included in its plan a programme for integrated education. The Government launched the Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) scheme in December 1974. It was a Centrally Sponsored Scheme aimed to provide educational opportunities to children with special needs (CWSN) in regular schools and to facilitate their achievement and retention. Under the scheme, hundred per cent financial assistance is provided to for setting up resource centers, surveys and assessment of children with disabilities, purchase and production of instruction materials and training and orientation of teachers. The scope of the scheme includes pre-school training, counselling for the parents, and special training in skills for all kinds of disabilities. The scheme provides facilities in the form of books, stationery, uniforms, and allowances for transport, reader, escort etc.
In spite of all these facilities, IEDC met with limited success — only a little more than 100 thousand CWSN have been covered. However, it was successful in creating awareness on the importance of integrating CWSN in the mainstream of education, a fact noted in the National Policy on Education, 1986.
Composite
Approach:
Project Integrated Education for the Disabled
(PIED) was another experiment on IE in India. Due to combined effort of the
Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) and UNICEF, the PIED came into
existence in 1987. After it’s launching there was a shift in strategy, from a
school based approach to a Composite Area Approach. In this approach, a
cluster, instead of the individual school approach is emphasized. A cluster,
usually a block of population is taken as the project area. All the schools in
the area are expected to enroll children with disabilities. Training programmes
were also given to the teachers. This project was implemented in one
administrative block each in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Orissa,
Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Mizoram, Delhi Municipal Corporation, and
Baroda Municipal Corporation. The approach is an improvement over the special
schools in many ways and appears to be the only way towards universalizing education
of the disabled children. It is more cost effective and easier to organise,
since existing school infrastructure is to be made use of. Under PIED, there
has been a significant increase in the number of not only mildly disabled, but
also severely disabled children, with the number of orthopaedically handicapped
children far outstripping other disabled children. All these perform at par
with non - disabled children; in fact their retention rate is higher than that
of non - disabled children and absenteeism is low. PIED has also had a positive
impact on the attitudes of the teachers, the heads of schools, as well as
parents and the community in general. Also, the interaction between the
disabled and the non - disabled children is good.
Inclusive
Approach:
In late 90s (i.e. in 1997) the philosophy of
inclusive education is added in District Primary Education Programme (DPEP).
Moreover, DPEP also addressed core issues related to curriculum such as what
factors limit the access of certain children to curriculum; what modifications
are necessary to ensure fuller curriculum access. Thus, with its child-centered
pedagogy, DPEP set a stage where children with special needs could be provided
learning opportunities tailored to their needs. By 1998, many DPEP states had
conducted surveys, assessment camps and evolved strategies to provide resource
support to those children with special needs who were enrolled in DPEP schools.
The IED guidelines in DPEP intend clearly that “DPEP will fund interventions
for IED of primary school going children with integrable and mild to moderate
disabilities”. Towards this end DPEP supported community mobilization and early
detection, in-service teacher training, resource support, provision of
educational aids and appliances and removal of architectural barriers.
IED was initially introduced in the Indian states
in a small way by taking one block/cluster as a pilot project in each DPEP
district. From a few hundred blocks in 1998, IED is currently being implemented
in 2014 blocks of 18 DPEP states. Ten states of Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal
Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and
Uttaranchal have up scaled the IED programme to all the blocks.
DPEP estimates clearly showed that there were a
large number of disabled children in the relevant age group. Gradually
realization dawned that UPE could not be achieved unless children with special
needs were also brought under the ambit of primary education. This led to more
concrete planning and stratification of providing resource support and remedial
assistance to children with special needs.
As the programme progressed, many models of service
delivery evolved with the sole aim of providing supportive learning environment
to children with special needs. The thrust was on imparting quality education
to all disabled children. The National Policy on Education, 1986 “...Future
emphasis shall be on distance and open learning systems to provide
opportunities and access to all the major target groups, especially the
disadvantaged, viz., women, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the adult
working class, and people serving in the far - flung remote areas.” There after
Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992 was passed by the Parliament in 1992, this act makes it mandatory for
every special teacher to be registered by the council and lays down that every
child with disability had the right to be taught by a qualified teacher. In
fact it provided punishment for those teachers who engaged in teaching children
with special needs without a license. The
Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protections of Rights and Full Participation)
Act, 1995 stresses the need to provide
free of cost education to all children in an appropriate environment till they
are 18 years old and further emphasize their right to measures like:
a) Transport facilities to the
students with disabilities or alternative financial incentives to parents or
guardians to enable their students with disabilities to attend schools;
b) The removal of architectural
barriers from schools, colleges or other institutions imparting vocational and
professional training;
c) The supply of books, uniforms
and other materials to students with disabilities attending school;
d) The grant of scholarship to
students with disabilities;
e) Setting up of appropriate
fora for the redressal of grievances of parents regarding the placement of their
students with disabilities;
f) Suitable modification in the
examination system to eliminate purely mathematical questions for the benefit
of blind students and students with low vision;
g) Restructuring of curriculum
for the benefit of students with disabilities;
h) Restructuring the curriculum
for benefit of students with hearing impairment to facilitate them to take only
one language as part of their curriculum.
The National
Trust Act (National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral
Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disability), 1999 also came in to existence. This landmark
legislation seeks to protect and promote the rights of persons who within the
disability sector, have been even more marginalized than others. It was first
of its kind in the category of persons addressed. It recognized the range of independence
in skills, daily living and financial management. It is prime decision making body
for persons with disabilities and aims to provide
total care to persons with mental retardation and cerebral palsy and also
manage the properties bequeathed to the trust.
The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education (1994) emerged as a result of deliberations held by more than 300 participants representing 92 governments and 25 international organizations in June1994. For furthering the objectives of Education for all, it considered the fundamental policy-shifts required to promote inclusive education. It emphasizes that schools should accommodate all children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. The Statement affirms: “those with special educational needs must have access to regular schools which should accommodate them within child centered pedagogy capable of meeting these needs”.
India was a signatory to the Salamanca Statement. In
this perspective the Human Resource Development minister of India Sri Arjun
Singh on the 21st March 2005 assured in the Rajya Sabha that MHRD has
formulated a comprehensive action plan for the Inclusive Education of Children
and Youth with Disabilities. The government is committed to provide education
through mainstream schools for children with disabilities in accordance with
PWD ACT, 1995 and all the schools in the country will be made disabled friendly
by 2020. Rupees 10 billion have been outlaid to fulfill the needs of disabled
persons between the ages of 14 and 18 years through a revised plan for
Inclusive Education of Children and Youth with Disabilities (IECYD).In 2005-06,
the Project Approval Board has allocated an amount of Rs.187.79 crores under
this component for a total 20.14 lakh Children With Special Needs (CWSN)
identified. The commitment of the
Government of India to Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) cannot be
fully achieved without taking care of special educational needs of the
physically and mentally challenged children.
MINISRTY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (MHRD) ACTION PLAN:
An outline of MHRD action plan is presented below: National Policy for
Persons with
·
To complement and
supplement IEDC and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programmes in the movement from
integration to inclusion.
·
Enrolment and retention
of all children with disabilities in the mainstream education system. (Free and
compulsory education from 0 to 14 under draft Bill/free education 0 to 18 yrs
under PWD Act).
·
Providing need based
educational and other support in mainstream schools to children in order to
develop their learning and abilities, through appropriate curricula,
organizational arrangements, teaching strategies, resource and partnership with
their communities.
·
Support higher and
vocational education through proper implementation of the existing reservation
quota in all educational institutions and creation of barrier free learning
environments.
·
Disability focused
research and interventions in universities and educational institutions.
·
Review implementation of
existing programmes, provisions to identify factors leading to success or
failure of the drive towards enrollment and retention of children with
disabilities in mainstream educational settings. Address administrative issues
arising out of review.
·
Generating awareness in
the general community, activists and persons working in the field of education and more specifically among parents
and children that the disabled have full rights to appropriate education in
mainstream schools and that it is the duty of those involved in administration
at every level including schools to ensure that they have access to education.
·
Ensure enrollment and
intervention for all children with special needs in the age group 0-6 years in
Early Childhood Care and Education Programs.
·
Facilitate free and
compulsory elementary education for children with special needs in the age
group 6-14 (extendable to 18 yrs.) in mainstream education settings currently
under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) ( SSA is a governmental program shared by
both union and state governments for achieving universal elementary education
in India by 2010) .
·
Facilities for
transition of young persons with disability wishing to pursue secondary
education.
·
Ensuring physical access
of children and youth with disabilities in schools and educational institutions
by enforcing the requirement for provisions of universal design in buildings
and provide support in transportation.
·
Development of national
norms for Inclusive Education, to set standards of implementation, training,
monitoring and evaluation for the program.
·
Provide inputs in all
pre-service and in-service training for mainstream and special education
teachers to enable them to work with children with disability in an inclusive
education system.
·
Appropriate Resource
Services support through appointment of special educators, rehab professionals,
provision of resource rooms, etc to support mainstream schoolteachers in the
classrooms.
·
Put in place an
effective communication and delivery system for specific delivery of TLM, aids
and appliances, hardware/software.
·
Participation in sports,
co-curricular activities, to promote all round ability development.
·
Ensuring physical access
for young persons with disabilities (18 plus age group) in all colleges and
educational institutions by enforcing the requirement for provisions of
universal design in buildings and provide support in transportation.
The Tenth Plan (2002-2007) aims to
provide Universal Elementary Education by the end of the plan. It also aims to
provide basic education for the un-reached segments and special groups. The
special interventions and strategies like pedagogic improvement and adoption of
child centered practices are focused on the groups like the girls, scheduled
castes and scheduled tribes, working children, children with disabilities,
urban deprived children, children from minority groups, children below poverty
line, migratory children and in the hardest to reach groups.
A policy of inclusion
needs to be implemented in all schools and throughout Indian education system.
The participation of all children needs to be ensured in all spheres of their
life in and outside the school. Schools need to become centers that prepare
children for life and ensure that all children, especially the differently
abled children from marginalized sections, and children in difficult
circumstances get the maximum benefit of this critical area of education.
Opportunities to display talents and share these with peers are powerful tools
in nurturing motivation and involvement among children. In our schools we tend
to select some children over and over again. While this small group benefits
from these opportunities, becoming more self–confident and visible in the
school, other children experience repeated disappointment and progress through
school with a constant longing for recognition and peer approval. Excellence
and ability may be singled out for appreciation, but at the same time opportunities
need to be given to all children and their specific abilities need to be
recognized and appreciated. This includes children with disabilities, who may need
assistance or more time to complete their assigned tasks. It would be even
better if, while planning for such activities, the teacher discusses them with
all the children in the class, and ensures that each child is given an
opportunity to contribute. When planning, therefore, teachers must pay special
attention to ensuring the participation of all. This would become a marker of their
effectiveness as teachers. Excessive emphasis on competitiveness and individual
achievement is beginning to mark many of our schools, especially private
schools catering to the urban middle classes. Very often, as soon as children
join, houses are allocated to them. Thereafter, almost every activity in the
school is counted for marks that go into house points, adding up to an
end-of-the-year prize. Such ‘house loyalties’ seem to have the superficial
effect of getting all children involved and excited about winning points for
their houses, but also distorts educational aims, where excessive
competitiveness promotes doing better than someone else as an aim, rather than
excelling on one’s own terms and for the satisfaction of doing something well.
Often placed under the monitoring eye of other children, this system distorts
social relations within schools, adversely affecting peer relations and
undermining values such as cooperation and sensitivity to others. Teachers need
to reflect on the extent to which they want the spirit of competition to enter
into and permeate every aspect of school life performing more of a function in
regulating and disciplining than in nurturing learning and interest. Schools
also undermine the diverse capabilities and talents of children by categorizing
them very early, on narrow cognitive criteria. Instead of relating to each child
as an individual, early in their lives children are placed on cognitive berths
in the classroom: the ‘stars’, the average, the below - average and the
‘failures’. Most often they never have a chance to get off their berth by
themselves. The demonizing effect of such labeling is devastating on children.
Schools go to absurd lengths to make children internalise these labels, through
verbal name calling such as ‘dullard’, segregating them in seating arrangements,
and even creating markers that visually divide children into achievers and
those who are unable to perform. The fear of not having the right answer keeps
many children silent in the classroom, thus denying them an equal opportunity
to participate and learn. Equally paralyzed by the fear of failure are the so called
achievers, who lose their capacity to try out new things arising from the fear
of failure, doing less well in examinations, and of losing their ranks. It is
important to allow making errors and mistakes to remain an integral part of the
learning process and remove the fear of not achieving ‘full marks’. The school
needs to send out a strong signal to the community, parents who pressurize
children from an early age to be perfectionists. Instead of spending time in
tuitions or at home learning the ‘perfect answers’, parents need to encourage their
children to spend their time reading storybooks, playing and doing a reasonable
amount of homework and revision. Instead of looking for courses on stress management
for their pupils, school heads and school managements need to de-stress their
curricula, and advise parents to de-stress children’s life outside the school. Schools
that emphasise intense competitiveness must not be treated as examples by
others, including state-run schools. The ideal of common schooling advocated by
the Kothari Commission four decades ago continues to be valid as it reflects
the values enshrined in our Constitution. Schools will succeed in inculcating
these values only if they create an ethos in which every child feels happy and
relaxed. This ideal is even more relevant now because education has become a
fundamental right, which implies that millions of first-generation learners are
being enrolled in schools. To retain them, the system — including its
private sector — must recognize that there are many children that no
single norm of capacity, personality or aspiration can serve in the emerging
scenario. School administrators and teachers should also realize that when boys
and girls from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds and different
levels of ability study together, the classroom ethos is enriched and becomes
more inspiring.
A child has special educational
needs if s/he has difficulty in learning. This may require special educational
provision to be made for him or her. A child may have learning difficulty
because of a disability which hinders her/his from making use of the existing educational facilities
provided for all other children of her class. A child may have learning
difficulty because of some other reasons too.
Inclusive
Education in Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan:
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was launched to achieve the
goal of Universalisation of Elementary Education. This adopts a zero rejection
policy and uses an approach of converging various schemes and programmes. The key objective of SSA is Universalisation of Elementary
Education (UEE). Three important aspect of UEE are access, enrolment and retention of
all children in 6-14 years of age. A zero rejection policy has been adopted
under SSA, which ensures that every Child with Special Needs (CWSN),
irrespective of the kind, category and degree of disability, is provided
meaningful and quality education. It covers the following components
under education for children with special needs:-Early detection and
identification, functional and formal assessment, Educational Placement, Aids
and appliances, Support services, Teacher training, Resource support,
Individual Educational Plan (IEP), Parental training and community
mobilization, Planning and management, Strengthening of special schools,
Removal of Architectural barriers, Research, Monitoring and evaluation, Girls
with disabilities.
SSA provides up to
Rs.1200/- per child for integration of disabled children, as per specific
proposals, per year. The interventions under SSA for inclusive education are
identification, functional and formal assessment, appropriate educational
placement, preparation of Individualized Educational
Plan, provision of aids and
appliances, teacher training, resource support, removal of architectural
barriers, monitoring and evaluation and a special focus on girls with special
needs. Residential bridge courses for CWSN with the main objective of preparing
CWSN for schools, thereby ensuring better quality inclusion for them. Facilities
for home-based education for children with severe and profound disabilities are
provided with the objective of either preparing CWSN for schools or for life by
imparting to them basic life skills.
Identification
and enrolment:
Household surveys and special
surveys have been conducted by all states to identify CWSN. 3 million 38
thousand CWSN have been identified in 33 States/UTs. 20 thousand 30 thousand CWSN
(66.84 percent of those identified) are enrolled in schools. Further 88009 CWSN
are being covered through EGS/ AIE in 15 states and 77083 CWSN are being
provided homebound education in 19 states. In all 72.27% of the identified CWSN
in 2006-07 have been covered through various strategies.
Barrier-free
access:
Making schools barrier free to
access for CWSN is incorporated in the SSA framework. All new schools to be
barrier free in order to improve access for CWSN, is incorporated in the SSA
framework. 4.44 thousand Schools have ramps for CWSN. Focus is now on improving
quality, monitoring of services provided to and retaining CWSN in school.
Simulation
Park:
In Tamil Nadu to facilitate inclusion, local schools has been involved in building low cost ‘Simulation Park’ by using local low-cost material, which can be used by all children. The main aim of this simulation park is to give CWSN and their peers a chance to be able to experience various kinds of play equipment jointly. Since this playground is for the benefit of both disabled and able-bodied children, each BRC in the State has this playground at a low cost. The play equipment can be designed depending on the child’s abilities.
Mode of Special
Education in Schools of india :
Children with disabilities are educated in India through special schools. There exist a few schools exclusively for blind and deaf under government sector. But there is not any special provision in mainstream government schools for education other disabled children like low vision, leprosy cured, hearing impaired, locomotory disabled, mentally retarded, mentally ill, autism affected, cerebral palsy affected and multiple-disabled. These children with disabilities are nurtured to some extent through the special schools of non-government sector.
FIGHTING EDUCATIONAL EXCLUSION:
Inclusion is a complex issue. The curriculum is a powerful tool (Swann,
1988) and may be part of the problem. On inclusion Reuven Feuerstein viewed
that “Chromosomes do not have the last word”. However, his view on inclusion
are challenging for everywhere. He argues there are three pre-requisites: a)
The preparation of the child, b) The preparation of the receiving schools, c)
The preparation of parents, but it could not be achieved without d) The
preparation of the teachers.
a. The preparation of the child:
Some children with special needs may require some prior
training before they are placed in a regular school. Special educators made
available for the purpose can provide such training and thereafter CWSN may be
admitted in mainstream schools. States of Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have
conducted exclusive residential bridge course for CWSN to prepare them for
regular schools but in rest of the states it is not yet to be done. From 683 thousand, l00 thousand CWSN were identified in
2002-03. By 2006-07 3 million 38
thousand were identified. From 566 thousand CWSN enrolled in schools in
2002-03, the enrolment of CWSN currently in SSA stands at 2 million 20 thousand
(Dec. 2006).The target for 2006-07 include enrolment of 3 million 38 thousand CWSN in 34 States.
b. The
preparation of receiving schools:
Some mainstream secondary schools may be selected and developed as
“Model Inclusive School” on priority basis. First of all barrier-free access to
CWSN are made in all such institutions. Effort should be taken to provide
disabled-friendly facilities in these schools. Development of innovative
designs to provide an enabling environment for CWSN should also be made in
these schools as a part of preparation programme. In India total 222 thousand
schools have been made barrier-free countrywide under SSA.
c.
The preparation of parents:
It has been seen that the
parents/guardians of CWSN generally face problems, both social and
psychological resulting into marginalisation and exclusion of CWSN in
mainstream schools. Hence, it is important to undertake widespread awareness
among the people especially parents of CWSN. They should be counseled so that
they may prepare themselves to send his/her ward to mainstream schools.
d.
The preparation of teachers:
In India
teacher training in special education is imparted through both face-to-face and
distance mode.
I)
Pre-Service Training:
In India, there is provision for
pre-service teacher training in SE, but it is mainly concentrated in secondary
level training. There are 159 institutions of secondary teacher training in SE
whereas there are only eleven institutions in the country that imparts
pre-service training at elementary or primary level in SE. The Rehabilitation Council of India
(RCI) is the apex authority to develop, recognize and regulate the course
curriculum of SE. The Madhya Pradesh Bhoj (Open) University, Bhopal is the
single university in the country, imparting B. Ed. (SE) through distance
learning mode. Recently, it has launched Post Graduate Professional Diploma in
Special Education Course for general B.Ed. students. The successful candidate
of this program becomes equivalent to B.Ed.-SEDE degree holder with
specialilzation in opted disability area.
As the Indian school system is one of the largest in the world and
number of CWSN are very high, the prevailing situation of pre-service teacher
training in special education needs to be strengthened or elaborate alternative
mechanism for incorporating the elements of special education in general
teacher training programs needs to found out.
The teacher training
course curriculum of general pre-service training programs neither fully equip
the teachers and teacher educators to deal with the CWSN nor it equip them to
manage the mild and moderately disabled children in general classrooms. Towards
this end, an MOU has been signed between the National Council for Teacher
Educations (NCTE) and the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) leading towards
a convergence so as to sensitize all teachers and resource persons. The NCERT
(2000) has set up a group under the National Curriculum Framework Review to
examine the pedagogic inputs and classroom reorganization required for CWNS.
Even, UGC National Educational Testing Bureau has already included “Special Education”, in curriculum of its Educational discipline. It includes details about special education, integrated education, education of mentally retarded (MR), visually impaired (VI), hearing impaired (HI), orthopaedically handicapped (OH), gifted and creative children, learning disabled children and education of Juvenile delinquents. The Postgraduate Departments of Education in India is on way to strengthen the disability element in their respective curriculum.
Residential
Bridge Courses for CWSN in A.P., U.P. & Rajasthan:
Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh
and Rajasthan have developed a roadmap to implement residential Bridge Courses
to develop skills of readiness for successful integration in regular schools.
The other objectives of the course are: (i) equip with required skills among
students with severe disabilities to use special equipment independently, (ii) develop
adequate 3R’s skills as well as academic competencies required for immediate
inclusion in the regular classroom appropriate to the child’s grade level and
(iii) develop sense of independence, self-confidence and motivation for
personal growth, to orient the children with various environments, not only for
school inclusion, but also community and social inclusion.
II) In-Service Training:
Different kinds of teacher training programmes are being
implemented under SSA to orient elementary teachers towards Inclusive Education
(IE). The component IE has been incorporated as a part of 20 days mandatory
training of in-service teachers under SSA. This aims at orienting every teacher
to the concept, meaning and importance of inclusion. Further, the state SSA
programme also taken up a 3-5 or 5-7 day teacher exclusively in I.E. Total
2 million 45.2 thousand teachers have been covered through regular teacher
training programmes, which includes a 2-3 day capsule on inclusive education. 1
million 400 thousand teachers have been provided 3-5 days additional training
for better orientation to Inclusive Education. 39816 teachers have been trained
in 22 States with Rehabilitation Council of India for 45 days and act as
Resource Persons in districts/blocks. 23 States have appointed 6147 resource
teachers and 671 NGOs are involved in the IE programme in 31 States. Schools
are being made more disabled friendly by incorporating barrier free features in
their designs. 444 thousand schools have been made barrier-free and the work is
on. 575 thousand CWSN have been provided the required assistive
devices.
Bihar Education Project
Council, popularly known as BEP, (BEP Council is a governmental body of
the state of Bihar which is the main agency for implementation of various
programs for achieving universal primary and elementary education in Bihar.) began
its exercise in empowerment of primary teachers with different in-service
packages. Two training modules Ujala-III (2006) and Samarth (2006) has been
developed with specific focus on initial screening of CWSN and basic classroom
management skills. Through Ujala-III, BEP intends to sensitize in-service
teacher of upper primary classes (grade 6 to 8) towards integrated education.
The issues undertaken in this module are provision of educational concession,
travel facilities and some other supplementary schemes. The disability element
of this module is insufficient to sensitize the teacher towards CWSN.
On the other hand, Samarth (2006) another three days teachers training
module is concentrated exclusive upon I.E. The issues undertaken in this module
are: concept of inclusive education, need of its training, sensitization, types
and level of disability, IEP, causes of disabilities, teaching techniques,
learning disabilities, and facilities for CWSN, rules & regulations for individual
with special needs. The content of the module is enough for primary level
in-service teacher.
Beside, the teachers are also being exposed to the concept of inclusive
need based pedagogy through training on principles of effective teaching such as
classroom organization, seating arrangements, TLM, IEPs, evaluation process
etc. It is worth mentioning that similar in-service training programs are in
operation in all Indian states under SSA.
At present all the educational schemes of inclusive education tend
toward universalization of primary education. But the secondary and higher
education is at the verge of ignorance. So, there is an urgent need to create
Inclusive Education Department under State’s Human Resource Development
Ministry to cater the challenges of inclusion principles.
Summary and conclusion
Inclusive
education (IE) is a new approach towards educating the children with disability
and learning difficulties with that of normal ones within the same roof. Of
late, a consensus has emerged among Indian intellectuals and pedagogues for
adopting inclusive education in mainstream schools.
The
term “Special Need Education” (SNE) has come into use as a replacement for the
term “Special Education”, as older one was mainly understood to refer the education
of all those children and youth whose needs arise from disabilities or learning
difficulties. The Statement affirms: “those with
special educational needs must have access to regular schools which should
accommodate them within child centered pedagogy capable of meeting these needs”.
This leads the vision of “Inclusive Education”.
Inclusive Education aims at integrated development of children with special
needs and normal children through mainstream schooling. To develop curriculum
for special education and its inclusion in general teacher preparation programs,
Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) made a historic collaboration with
National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) on January 19, 2005.
Fewer than five percent of children who have a
disability are in schools. In India special education as a separate system of
education for disabled children outside the mainstream education system evolved
way back in 1880s.
Consequent on the success of international
experiments in placing children with disabilities in regular schools, the
Planning Commission in 1971 included in its plan a programme for integrated
education. The Government launched the Integrated Education for Disabled
Children (IEDC) scheme in December 1974.
It was a Centrally
Sponsored Scheme aimed to provide educational opportunities to children with
special needs (CWSN) in regular schools and to
facilitate their achievement and retention. All the schools in the area
are expected to enroll children with disabilities. Training programs were also
given to the teachers. Under PIED, there has been a significant increase in the
number of not only mildly disabled, but also severely disabled children, with
the number of orthopaedically handicapped children far outstripping other
disabled children.
In late 90s (i.e. in 1997) the philosophy of inclusive education is added in District Primary Education Programme (DPEP). By 1998, many DPEP states had conducted surveys, assessment camps and evolved strategies to provide resource support to those children with special needs who were enrolled in DPEP schools. The thrust was on imparting quality education to all disabled children.
The government is committed to provide
education through mainstream schools for children with disabilities in
accordance with PWD ACT, 1995 and all the schools in the country will be made
disabled friendly by 2020. Enrolment and retention of all children with
disabilities in the mainstream education system should be ensured providing
need based educational and other support to these children in order to develop
their learning and abilities. The special
interventions and strategies like pedagogic improvement and adoption of child
centered practices are focused on the children with disabilities.
At present 20 thousand 30 thousand CWSN (66.84 percent of those
identified) are enrolled in schools. Further 88009 CWSN are being covered
through EGS/ AIE in 15 states and 77083 CWSN are being provided homebound
education in 19 states.
Making schools barrier free to access for CWSN is incorporated in the SSA framework. 4.44 thousand Schools have ramps for CWSN. The play equipment can be designed depending on the child’s abilities.
In India
teacher training in special education is imparted through both face-to-face and
distance mode. The teacher
training course curriculum of general pre-service training programs neither fully
equips the teachers and teacher educators to deal with the CWSN nor it equip
them to manage the mild and moderately disabled children in general classrooms.
Different kinds of teacher training programs are being
implemented under SSA to orient elementary teachers towards Inclusive Education
(IE). 1 million 400 thousand teachers have been
provided 3-5 days additional training for better orientation to Inclusive
Education.
The general issues undertaken in the IE training modules for in-service
elementary teachers under SSA are: concept of inclusive education, need of its
training, sensitization, types and level of disability, IEP, causes of
disabilities, teaching techniques, learning disabilities, and facilities for
CWSN, rules & regulations for individual with special needs. At present all
the educational schemes of inclusive education tend toward universalization of
primary education.
IE is not only the alternative measures for CWSN for want of separate
special schools for these children but it is a scientific well thought strategy
for their overall development; of course it is cost effective and doubly
suitable for a developing country like India. Various initiatives for teaching
of CWSN along with normal children in main stream schools popularly known as IE
are being taken at different levels but still 95 percent of CWSN are out of
mainstream schools. Even the schools where IE is in operation, infrastructural
facilities required for inclusive teaching-learning processes are poor.
Capability of teachers required to deal CWSN along with normal children also
appear to be poor reflecting the poor quality of training for IE. The only
point of satisfaction is that importance of IE has been recognized and
government is working hard to provide universal education to CWSN under IE.
.
REERENCES:
1.
Annual
Report 2006-07: Department of School Education & Literacy Department
of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of
India, PP.25-27. Available on http://www.education.nic.in
2.
Annual Report 2005-06: Department of Elementary
Education and Department of Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Human
Resources and Development, Govt. of India. Available on http://www.education.nic.in
3. Boyd. B (2006): Taking the Initiative: Perspectives on Policies and practices on Inclusion. Available on