Inclusion
is not a programme but an ideology:
Inclusive education is an ideology
and not a programme. It is a concept of effective schools where every
child has a place to study and teachers become facilitators of learning
rather than providers of information. Inclusion is the general goal in
developing nations and the ways of facilitating inclusion are many.
What is the need for Inclusion in India?
In addressing the issue of "why
inclusion", the reality in Indian context should be reviewed. Some
of the important facts in the Indian scenario are as follows :
1. More than 90% of disabled children
are found in the rural areas in India. The special schools as well as
integrated education programmes are only a few in number and cannot serve
all disabled children. Therefore, inclusive education is needed to provide
equal educational opportunities to all disabled children in their own
locations.
2. As far as the standardised models of
integration are concerned, one specialist teacher serves 8 to 10 disabled
children of the same category. This approach is not practical in rural
areas. In most villages of the country, disabled children of different
categories are present. Therefore, the disabled child has to depend on
the general school for education. As a result, inclusion is inevitable
for these children from rural areas.
3. The extent of disability in each category ranges
from mild to severe and profound cases. The mild and moderate cases are
more in number than the severe and profound cases and they depend on the
general education system. This calls for the involvement of general education
so that the children who are currently left out of schools or those who
are at risk can be served.
Therefore, the reality in India focuses
the need for inclusive education. However, the general education system
is yet to be fully sensitised to the educational needs of children with
disabilities and therefore, the general system needs the assistance of
specialist teachers for occasional help to make inclusive education work.
With the inclusion of special education inputs in general teacher preparation,
the pre-service teachers in the future are likely to be equipped with
skills to teach children with disabilities too in addition to their general
classroom teaching. Therefore, presence of a specialist teacher in the
inclusive setting in Indian context would be vital for another decade.
How is Inclusion different from Integration?
In special school concept, the special education
component is APART from the general education system, whereas in integrated
approach, it is A PART of the general education. Inclusive education goes
one step further. In this approach, the special education is an INTEGRAL
PART of the general education system.
Therefore, the transition from "Special
School Concept" to "Inclusive Education" can be treated
as an evolutionary process in the services for children with disabilities.
To what extent the education documents in India emphasise
Inclusive Education?
Introduction of education of children
with disabilities in India can be traced back to the dawn of 19th century.
Special school services in the country were initiated mostly by foreign
missionaries. The concept of inclusion has been finding its reference
in many national education documents in the post-independent period. The
article 45 of the Constitution of India is assuring better services to
persons with disabilities. The Education Commission Report (1964-66) recommended
placement of the disabled child, 'as far as possible' in ordinary schools.
The National Policy on Education (NPE) (1986).
Included a full chapter on "Education
of the Handicapped" and formulated guidelines for action. The NPE
strongly emphasised the need for the expansion of integrated education
programmes. The centrally sponsored scheme of integrated education for
disabled children (IEDC) which was introduced in 1974 got a fillip as
a result of the NPE. Therefore, efforts for inclusion were persistently
made.
To what extent is inclusion promoted through the Persons
with Disabilities Act 1995?
The issue of the services for children
with disabilities is treated as human resources development with the introduction
of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights
and Full Participation) Act 1995. As a result of this Act, services for
children with disabilities is no more considered a welfare activity; rather
it is treated as the right of the disabled child.
The main purpose of the PWD Act is
to define responsibilities of the central governments and state governments
with regard to services for disabled persons. The Act also ensures full
life to disabled individuals so as to make full contribution in accordance
with their disability conditions. Blindness, Low Vision, Leprosy-Cured,
Hearing Impairment, Locomotor Disability, Mental Illness, and Mental Retardation
are the seven disability conditions covered under the Act. As per the
Act, the central and state governments shall ensure that every child with
disability has access to free and adequate education till the age of 18.
Introduction of non-formal education, functional literacy schemes, provision
of aids and appliances, education through open schools and universities,
etc., are also stressed in the Act. It also indicates that the Government
should create adequate teacher training facilities to prepare teachers
for special education. Development of research on assistive devices is
also envisaged in the Act. Many schemes are being evolved at the national
and state levels to implement this Act. Therefore, the PWD Act 1995 is
strongly encouraging inclusive education concepts wherever possible.
What is the role of the Rehabilitation Council of India
in Inclusion?
In 1992, the Rehabilitation
Council of India (RCI) Act was passed in the Parliament. The Act was created
by the then Ministry of Welfare (presently known as the Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment) to regulate the manpower development programmes
in the field of education of children with special needs. Though RCI does
not deal directly with the promotion of services at the school level,
it has projected the need for massive manpower for facilitating education
for all disabled children. The RCI has so far developed more than 50 courses
and recognised more than 100 institutions to offer special education and
rehabilitation manpower development programmes in India. Institutes working
in the area of disability are encouraged to develop manpower development
programmes in specific categories, and recognition to the institutions
is accorded when they comply with the norms prescribed by the RCI. The
enactment of RCI Act 1992 goes a long way in accrediting special education
manpower development programmes in the country and bringing professionalism
in serving persons with disabilities. The RCI's manpower projection is
made with the purpose of facilitating education to all disabled children.
Therefore, the inclusive education policy is supported by the RCI too.
What will be the role of special schools when inclusion
expands?
Special school concept is still an accepted
model of education for children with disabilities in India and it will
continue to be so in the years to come. Presently there are about 3000
special schools addressing persons with different disabilities. It is
estimated that there are 900 schools for hearing impaired, 400 schools
for visually impaired, 1000 for mentally retarded and 700 for physically
disabled children (UNISED Report, 1999). The exact number of special schools
is not fully known as there are many NGOs who run these schools and are
not yet included in the lists available. However, the responsibilities
of special schools are likely to change in the future. Some of the desired
changes are :
1. They are expected to
become resource centres to facilitate inclusive education.
2. They are in a better
position to serve children with multiple disabilities. In the growing
concept of inclusion, the special schools have a vital role to play. Though
inclusion is open to everyone, experiences in India reveal that some children
may not cope with the inclusive setting. Children with additional disabilities,
orphans, etc., need some alternative settings and special schools may
equip themselves to serve these children.
What types of Services are provided in Inclusive Education?
In inclusive education programmes in India, three
types of services are directly or indirectly required by the disabled
child.
Essential Services: The most essential services
in an ideal inclusive setting are to be provided by the general classroom
teachers, non-disabled children and parents as well. The concept of child-to-child
learning, cooperative learning approaches, etc., have demonstrated that
true learning can happen through interaction between the disabled child
and all entities in the general school.
A sample list of essential services is as follows :
* Planning instructional strategies
for children with disabilities.
* Teaching content to them
* Maintaining attendance for curricular
and plus curricular activities.
* General discipline in the classroom
* Checking home assignments
* Conducting examinations
* Evaluation
* Facilitating child-to-child learning
* Taking progress of the child
* Consulting with special teachers
about the plus-curriculum needs of disabled children.
* Interacting with parents of disabled
children.
In an ideal inclusive setting, the
general classroom teachers provide these services to disabled children.
The terminology "essential services" is used here because the
disabled child cannot function well in inclusive setting without these
vital services. When these vital services are provided by general classroom
teachers, the child would be able to get education in the local school
itself even if there is no specialist teacher to attend to him/her.
Support Services: The second type of service required
in inclusion is the support service given by the fully qualified special
teachers. These teachers provide necessary material support and occasional
academic support to children with disabilities and also provide the needed
consultancy to regular classroom teachers. The support materials are compulsory
but providing academic support by specialist teacher need not be made
mandatory. The support services include the following :
* Identifying children with disabilities
in the community
* Teaching skills peculiar to disability
wherever necessary
* Assisting general classroom teachers
if needed
* Arranging assessment for children
with disabilities
* Arranging learning materials for
children with disabilities
* Arranging aids and appliances
* Monitoring the progress of the child
through classroom teachers
Peripheral Services: The third type of services
are the one-time peripheral services which are adhoc in nature. Agencies
such as hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and non-governmental organizations
etc., can provide one-time services such as identification, assessment,
counselling, etc.
The types of peripheral services are as follows :
* Issuing medical reports
* Providing social benefits
* Arranging sponsorship to educational
activities
* Counselling to parents
These peripheral services are to be arranged by the heads of institutes
of inclusive education programmes. What factors are vital for the success
of inclusive education?
1. Capacity building in the general education: For the effective
implementation of inclusive education for all types of disabled children,
general classroom teachers need training on understanding the educational
needs of these children. It is ideal to teach about special needs children
in the pre-service teacher preparation course itself. The curriculum framework
of the National Council for Teacher Education (1998) indicates that the
pre-service teacher preparation
course should include content on special needs children. Teachers, thus
trained, will be in a position to take care of the educational needs of
disabled children too in general classrooms if appropriate disability
specific assistive devices are made available. The work of the general
classroom teachers may be occasionally assisted by specialist teachers.
2. Adopting need-based instructional strategies :
Inclusive education does not mean just enrolling a child with disability
in the regular classroom. The child should be given help to cope up with
the regular classwork. Therefore, child-centred approach is needed. The
ideal inclusive setting would enrol disabled children of all categories
and also of different levels of disability. All of them may not require
the same kind of assistance. Some may require guidance rarely whereas
some others need continuous help. The children in inclusive education
may be classified as follows:
a. Children with mild disabilities who can
be handled by general classroom teachers with minimal training.
b. Children with mild/moderate disabilities
who need counselling services
c. Children with moderate/severe disabilities
who need resource assistance including corrective aids and periodical
help in academic areas.
d. Children with severe disabilities who
require direct attention/preparatory assistance from the special teachers.
Therefore, need-based instructional strategies
are imminent in the inclusive setting. The children under category (d)
may require the assistance of special teacher to a large extent at the
beginning to learn plus curricular skills. Therefore, the extent of assistance
should be decided on the basis of the instructional needs of the child.
With the proper understanding of need-based instructional strategies,
inclusive education will be successful.
3. Exchange of manpower and material resources: The success of
inclusive education depends on how effectively all departments concerned
in the State and local levels can be involved in the total development
of the disabled child. Inclusive education is a community involved programme
and therefore, its quality depends upon the extent of interaction between
the different functionaries of community development. The District Rehabilitation
Centres, local hospitals, braille presses, special schools, etc., are
to be closely involved in the programme implementation.
4. Enlisting parentsí and community's participation: Ideal
inclusive education programmes strongly insist on the importance of parental
involvement in education. Parent-interact groups are important for augmenting
the quality of inclusive education. The parental involvement not only
enriches inclusion but also brings attitudinal changes about disability
in the community.
5. Improving child-to-child learning : Though
general classroom teachers and special teachers are available for providing
services to children with disabilities in any locality, the influences
of non-disabled children on the educational achievement of disabled children
and vice-versa are noteworthy. In fact, the non-disabled children are
the best teachers for enabling disabled children to develop proper concepts.
The child-tochild learning also becomes relevant in India where the size
of the classroom is fairly large. Inclusive settings should tap the child-to-child
learning strategy effectively to improve the achievement of all children
including that of disabled children.
6. Making the programme for children with disabilities
an integral part of the general educational system : As stated
earlier, the ideal inclusive education in India would be possible only
when all general education teachers are capable of serving children with
disabilities. Till then, presence of a specialist teacher for a cluster
of schools is inevitable. If inclusion is to be successful, the specialist
teacher should also be treated as a part and parcel of the general system.
What are the existing practices of Inclusive Education
in India?
Both full-fledged inclusive education
programmes and quasi-inclusive programmes are being practised in various
forms by different organisations in India. At present, at least 7 implementing
strategies of inclusive education are observed in India.
They are listed as follows:
1. Resource models where children
with disabilities study in general schools and stay in hostels meant for
non-disabled children.
2. Resource models where children
with disabilities study in general schools and stay in hostels of the
nearby special schools.
3. Resource models where children
with disabilities study in general schools and stay with parents at home.
4. Semi-resource models or cooperative
models where children with disabilities are taught only by the resource
teacher in a separate class in a general school.
5. Itinerant model where a resource
teacher visits the child in his/her local school and the child stays with
parents.
6. Multi-category resource model where disabled
children of different kinds are educated in a general school by the regular
teachers and a specialist teacher.
7. Multi-category itinerant model where
one special teacher attends to the needs of disabled children of different
categories in a particular locality.
An ideal inclusive education concept
aims at facilitating total integration of the child in the community.
The upcoming inclusive education programmes in India are avoiding separation
of children with disabilities from their families for the purpose of education.
Tangible Experiences: The Centrally sponsored
scheme of Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) being implemented
through government and non-government organizations in the country has
mainstreamed nearly 150000 children with disabilities in general schools.
The UNICEF through the National Council of Educational Research and Training
(NCERT), sponsored a programme called Project Integrated Education for
the Disabled (PIED) during the period 1987 to 1994 in 10 selected blocks
in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Orissa, Rajasthan,
Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Haryana, Municipal Corporation Delhi and Municipal
Corporation Baroda. The main objectives of the PIED were to prepare general
education system to achieve the goal of education for all children including
those with disabilities, develop an attitude of acceptance of children
with disabilities in the classroom and improve the achievement of all
children including the ones with special needs. The PIED emerged as the
first indigenous inclusive education programme in India. The District
Primary Education Programme (DPEP) of the Government of India implemented
in the States also as a special focus to serve children with disabilities
in mainstream schools.
The initiatives of international non-governmental
development organizations in promoting mainstream education too are also
stupendous in India. The CBM International, Germany, one of the leading
International Non-Governmental Organisations initiated inclusive education
in South India in the year 1980. It organised a series of orientation
programmes for general classroom teachers and administrators about inclusive
education. This enabled hundreds of general schools to enrol children
with disabilities, mostly visually impaired children. The CBM also helped
local organisations in India to develop mechanisms for providing support
services in the form of preparation of Braille books, supply of aids and
appliances, teaching aids, etc., to enrich the educational experiences
of children with disabilities. Similarly Sight Savers supported many itinerant
programmes for visually impaired children in the northern part of the
country. Many voluntary organizations in the country are implementing
resource models for serving children with visual impairment.
A few projects in South India are
also attempting to provide inclusive education and comprehensive rehabilitation
services to persons with disabilities through grass-root level community
level workers.
Education For All (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan - SSA) - The
Latest Campaign
As per the guidelines issued by the
Government of India, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is an effort to universalize
elementary education by community ownership of the school system. It is
a response to the demand for quality basic education all over the country.
The SSA programme is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving
human capabilities of all children, through provision of community owned
quality education in a mission mode.
Aims of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan:
The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is to provide
useful and relevant elementary education for all children in the 6 to
14 age group by 2010. There is also another goal to bridge social, regional
and gender gaps, with the active participation of the community in the
management of schools. SSA realizes the importance of Early Childhood
Care and Education and looks at the 0-14 age as a continuum.
Specific Objectives of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan:
* All children in school, Education
Guarantee Centre, Alternate School, "Back to School" camp by
2003.
* All children complete five years
of primary schooling by 2007.
* All children complete eight years
of elementary schooling by 2010.
* Focus on elementary education of
satisfactory quality with emphasis on education for life.
* Bridge all gender and social category
gaps at primary stage by 2007 and at elementary education level by 2010.
* Universal retention by 2010.
Though the above targets are set forth for
the general education system, concepts such as "Education Guarantee
Centre", "Alternate School", etc., are more relevant to
achieve education for all disabled children. If all disabled children
are brought to school, the SSA scheme would be achieving its target as
it is always difficult to bring this group under the umbrella of education.
Recognizing this fact, substantial financial allocation has been made
under the SSA for the inclusion of disabled children in the mainstream
education. The local district is the implementing agency and it is allowed
to adopt flexibility to maximize educational opportunities for disabled
children at all levels. The Government is collaborating with non-governmental
organizations in the country to reach the out of school disabled children.
Each block of the district can appoint special teachers based on the number
of disabled children.
The SSA has already made significant progress
in the last one year. Though no up-to-date national data on enrollment
of disabled children are available at present, experiences in many states
in the country reveal that general schools are opening doors for children
with disabilities and as a result, more children are currently enrolled.
It is projected that the SSA programme is likely to result in a quantum
leap in the years to come in providing education for all children with
disabilities in India, and with this momentum, India will be able to achieve
the goal of EFA for all children with disabilities by 2015.
In short, the policies of inclusion
in India are sound. The practices too are flexible, need-based and context-specific.
The process of expansion of services has started from the perspective
of human rights of disabled children. The much cherished goal of education
for all disabled children can be achieved when the philosophy of inclusion
is fully absorbed in the general education system.
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