Inclusive Education: Empowering Students with Special Needs

Abstract

Inclusive/special education or mainstreaming important for the education of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. Inclusive Education is a new approach towards educating the children with disability and learning difficulties with that of normal ones within the same roof. It brings all students together in one classroom and community, regardless of their strengths or weaknesses in any area, and seeks to maximize the potential of all students. In the importance of special education essay will discussed concept of inclusive education, importance of inclusive education, challenges and measures to implement inclusive education. Also, in this essay both inclusive and special education has the same meaning.

The Concept of Inclusive Education

Inclusive Education is an academic system that allows special education to studentsto become included in mainstream classes alongside their peers. Education systems have come to be guided by policies to raise educational standards, on the one hand, and by policies to promote inclusion on the other. A dominant problem in the disability field is the lack of access to education for both children and adults with disabilities. As education is a fundamental right for all, enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and protected through various international conventions, this is a very serious problem. In many of countries, there is a dramatic difference in the educational opportunities provided for children with disabilities and those provided for non-disabled children. It will simply not be possible to realize the goal of Education for All if we do not achieve a complete change in the contemporary situation. Inclusive education is simultaneously a philosophy and a practice, based on particular theories of teaching and learning. The term Inclusive Education as referring to the education of children and youth with disabilities in general education classrooms with their nondisabled peers.

The process of inclusion means focusing on the system and making it welcoming to all. In case of the children with special needs, inclusion illustrates the shift in services from mere education to personal development. Inclusion is based on recognition of the capacities and potential of all children to develop if the environment is responsive to their needs.

Inclusion in education system is more than access to education. This perspective has led the necessity to change traditional techniques and strategies and reflecting on collaborative research projects by teachers, pupils and researchers. It also challenges the classic pedagogy of teaching and lead to conflict between values and goals. Considering the fact, Government of India had taken initiatives to provide 9 access to education for the children with special needs. One of the great and contemporary initiatives is ‘Universalization of Elementary Education’ (UEE).

Inclusive or Special Education is a process and an entry point to improve the quality of schools. A majority of policy makers said it was just a laudable theory which could not be put into practice. Lack of faith in their own education system is one of the major causes for the hesitation to accept inclusion in letter and spirit along with lack of convergence in teachers’ trainings. There is an urgent need for interventions for equipping general teachers with special skills, making general curricula, teaching methods, evaluation procedures, disability-sensitive learning material and skills in addressing the attitudes of other children in the school. This will help in ensuring effectiveness of such interventions. Otherwise Inclusion and Mainstreaming can easily become “main dumping”. So, the concept Inclusive Education needs a careful understanding.

Background of the Inclusive Education Programme

India is constitutionally committed to ensuring the right of every child to basic education. The Government of India has created numerous policies around special education since the country’s independence in 1947. One of the earliest formal initiatives undertaken by the GOI was the Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) scheme of 1974. The Kothari Commission which highlighted the importance of educating children with disabilities during the post-independence period. 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. 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 National Policy on Education, 1986, and the Programme of Action stresses the need for integrating children with special needs with other groups. The Government of India implemented the District Primary Education Project (DPEP) in 1994–95. In late 90s (i.e.in 1997) the philosophy of inclusive education is added in District Primary Education Programme (DPEP). This programme laid special emphasis on the integration of children with mild to moderate disabilities, in line with world trends, and became one of the GOI‟s largest flagship programmes of the time in terms of funding with 40,000 million rupees (approximately 740 million US dollars). SarvaShikshaAbhiyan (SSA) was launched to achieve the goal of Universalisation of Elementary Education in 2001, is one such initiative.

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. National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005 has laid down a clear context of inclusive education.

Need and Importance of Inclusive Education

It is very essential to include children with disabilities in the educational mainstream. The need of inclusive education is explained below. Firstly, eed for family’s vision of typical life for their children can come true All parents want their children to be accepted by there peers, have friends and lead regular lives. Inclusive settings can make this vision a reality for many children with disabilities. Secondly, the need for development of positive understanding of themselves and others. When children attend classes that reflect the similarities and differences of people in the real world, they learn to appreciate diversity. Respect and understanding grow when children of differing abilities and cultures play and learn together. Then the need for friendship development. School are important places for children to develop friendship and learn social skill. Children with and without disabilities learn with and each other in inclusive classes. Need for learning important academic skill. In inclusive classroom, children with and without disabilities are expected to learn to read, write and do. with higher expectations and good instruction children with disabilities learn academic skills. And lastly, need for all children learn by being together. Because of philosophy of education is aimed at helping all children learn everyone is the class benefits. Children learn at their own pace and style within a maturing environment.

Conclusions

Inclusive or special education in mainstreaming has been promoted on two bases: the rights of children to be included in mainstream education and the proposition that inclusive education is more effective. As a system, inclusive education should be flexible. Its flexibility must be reflected in the methods and materials used to give these children the widest possible access to the regular curriculum. Parents have a right to be involved in all decision-making concerning their child. They should be seen as partners in the education process. Where there is such co-operation, parents have been found to be very important resources for the teachers and the schools. Bringing special children into mainstream requires adjustments that schools need to make in advance. It is important for inclusion teachers to advocate the needs of their special education.

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