3ll_inclusive

"By 'Inclusive Education' one understands that in the entire existing educational set-up special provisions will be made in order to facilitate the education of the disabled child."

In every day and age there are certain words and phrases which become buzzwords for that period. About 30 years ago there was a lot of discussion and debate about 'Integrated Education' for the disabled children. Every organisation/institution in the field of disability worth its name wanted to promote 'Integrated Education'. There was not much thought accorded to the infrastructural requirements or capability of the child however. Presently, we are entering a new era of Inclusive Education'.
By 'Inclusive Education' one understands that in the entire existing educational set-up special provisions will be made in order to facilitate the education of the disabled child.

However, inclusion is a very difficult goal to achieve. We will need to make important social, legal and economic adjustments for inclusion to become a reality. People with disabilities, to be sure, are not a homogeneous group. They differ not only in the form and extent of their disabilities, but also in their personalities. These differences obviously would entail different requirements, some of which may also prove contradictory.

Main streaming: 'Positive strokes are a must for all... irrespective of their handicaps' by furnishing so-called relevant data and details. It is a human right to live and to be recognised for whatever strengths and talents one may have. Man is a social animal and has to fulfill the socialising need. We, therefore, must interact with other members of society. Positive strokes are a must for growth and the same is true for all human beings irrespective of their abilities and handicaps. According to the Human Rights Commission, it is a crime to discriminate against any human on the basis of colour, caste, creed, age, sex, province, community or, for that matter, any kind of different ability or disability. Let me quote some of the declarations on this subject: "Mankind owes to the child the best that it hast to give." (Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 1924) "By stressing the value of human rights in understanding developmental disability, a social model need not reject bio-medical information. There is much to be learned and valued from an understanding of people's particular differences and the bio-medical consequences and the challenges they bring. A social model recognises a bio-medical view as one source of information for understanding developmental disability. But it changes the vision and purpose of intervention: from "fixing" "impairments" and "abnormalities" to supporting people to exercise their human rights and thereby become full and valued members of society." (Michael Bach Current Views on Developmental Disabilities)

The Normalisation principle of Wolfensberger in the early seventies placed focus on the person with disability and suggested that we change the environment to suit the child with disability not the child to suit the environment. Much later, Howard Gardner gave us his theory of multiple intelligences. Internationally, a host of seminars, conferences, and conventions gradually paved the way to a clearer concept on attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities. There was a gradual shift in thinking from charity to rights. In 1983, the UN World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons specifically stated that the education of disabled persons should as far as possible take place in the general school system. However, it was only after deliberations at forums such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), World Declaration on Education for All (1990), the UN Standard Rules (1993) and perhaps the most relevant, the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action (1994) set out in concise terms for the first time the concept of inclusive education. It saw the thrust for inclusive education as one needing global consensus and urged all governments to adopt, as a matter of law and policy, the principle of inclusive education and emphasised that 'children with special needs must have access to regular schools.' Finally, the World Summit For Social Development in Copenhagen in March 1995, sought to ensure equal educational opportunities at all levels for children, youth and adults with disabilities.
The Indian government passed The Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation Bill for Persons with Disability December 1995 or The Disability Act in short. The Act very specifically mandates (Chapter V on Education) that every child with disability should have access to free and adequate education till the age of 18 and should be integrated into normal schools.

Education of children with disabilities in India has moved from segregation, special schools to integrated education. There is a national level central government sponsored scheme called Integrated education of disabled children. This project was started in the 1980s and designed based on the experience gathered from a UNICEF assisted pilot project called PIED (Project on Integrated Education of Disabled Children).

This is a resource teaching approach and one resource teacher has eight children with special needs. There are around 60,000 children with disabilities getting access to education under this scheme. In Karnataka, about two per cent of all children with disabilities acquire education. About one per cent of these children are enrolled in special schools and the balance one per cent of them are in the integrated education system. From integration, the educational setup is moving towards inclusion.

Educational opportunities are now available for children with disabilities within existing government schools, particularly in rural parts of Karnataka. Since the early ‘80s, schools have implemented “Integrated Education”, where a specially trained teacher teaches impaired children in a segregated environment. This model denies impaired children opportunities for interaction with other students and teachers. In “Inclusive Education” all children sit and learn together, and the regular school teacher is equipped to handle the specific educational needs of children with disabilities. This model is increasingly being recognised as a more holistic way of meeting the educational and emotional needs and rights of children with impairments; with the school as a site for rehabilitation and mainstreaming. The idea of inclusive education in government schools was introduced in Karnataka in 1998. Seva-in-Action (SIA), a pioneering organisation in the field of community-based rehabilitation and inclusive education for the disabled, developed a pilot model for training teachers for the District Primary Education Programme. In the year 2000, Janashala-Karnataka, a UN funded programme of the Government of India, extended this work to their schools in ten blocks spread across 6 districts in Karnataka.

In all its policies and projects on integrated education, the government has encouraged and supported voluntary effort in the expectation that it would supplement the public sector (Department of Education, 1986), despite overwhelming evidence that voluntary agencies tend to establish special schools, not integrated programmes....
Observing the situation on a wider level, during the doctoral study, a government of India survey reported that 98 per cent of disabled people were out of the reach of any service (GOI 1994). In the fifty years since independence only two per cent of people had received services. The non-governmental sector, due to lack of infrastructure and funds, could only serve in a minimalist way. Underpinning the acute marginalisation that exists were certain cultural and social values dominating the minds of people that stood as barriers to inclusion. Discussing the wider social fabric of Indian society the kind of message that came through was that disability was not seen as something 'normal' or 'natural', disability was seen as an 'evil eye'. Guilt, stigma and fear dominated families. All kinds of non-scientific explanations for disability existed. Voluntary organisations also believed in the charity model of service. Special schools continued to flourish, aided by the government and the voluntary sector. The contradiction here was that Indian society, although inclusive in accepting and valuing diversity in so many ways, has a social construct of disability which is negative, discriminatory and exclusionary.

In spite of the fact that operative words such as 'quality' or 'appropriate' are not mentioned, efforts have been made and perhaps some goals reached, particularly under the Integrated Education Scheme of the Ministry of Education. By and large, however, there has been no move towards the inclusive concept or equal opportunities for education provided to children with disabilities. The municipal corporation in Delhi, to its credit, has taken a policy decision to admit all children with disability into their schools. However, our interaction with two municipal corporation schools in Delhi has revealed that children are admitted only to languish on the backbenches.

Special schools often focus overmuch on the functional ability of a disabled person, instead of looking at a disabled person as a citizen with the same rights as a non-disabled person. In a special school the disabled person feels beholden to their teachers because their knowledge of the outside world is limited. Disabled people are not given, any responsibilities for their own lives. Until recently everyone, including people who I barely knew, called me Molly rather then Malini and considered me a child. They did not take my opinion seriously. Everything I did was considered wonderful and brilliant. The over-protective nurturing in special schools inhibits independent thinking.

Special institutions came into being to fill the vacuum. But these only perpetuated the gap between children with disability and the others. Special schools do not enable those with disability to compete on an equal footing. Their standards are lax, reinforcing the view that those with disability need a charitable approach. The fact of the matter is that normal kids stand as much of a chance of learning from those with disability as vice versa. If all children were to study under a more uniform system, it would enrich their experience, improve their exposure and raise social sensitivity levels. It also makes economic sense to have one type of school for all students.
...The latter are bound to a certain level of deliverability, whereas special schools focus on disability rather than performance. Teachers in special schools are not under challenge to perform as a result of which the potential of the challenged children is not realised.
The curriculum is watered down in these schools. Mainstream schools also have the advantage of reach. Government infrastructure has wide access. We believe inclusive education should be implemented through government schools.

- Equal Rights, Times of India, 05/10/2004, N20 /eldoc/n20_/05oct04toi1.html

Inclusive education like other aspects of Janashala faces many challenges. The challenges here are even more. Trying to address the physical and psychological blocks of the children and villagers are the Multi category Resource persons (MRP), who are teachers selected for IE training on the basis of their performance in an aptitude test. These teachers undergo an intensive 45-day residential training at Seva-in action, an NGO. They receive training to handle five disabilities -- hearing, intellectual, visual, physical and learning. The training equips the teachers to identify disabilities with the help of a resource kit. They gain field knowledge by going back to their concerned blocks and identifying the disabilities.

They also visit various institutions such as R V Integrated School (hearing impairment), APD (physical impairment) and Ramana maharishi academy (visual impairment) and learn to draw up unique curriculum as well as adapt existing curriculum. Their performance is evaluated and feed back given at the end. After the training a MRP is expected to visit other schools in her cluster to identify disabled children and to train other general teachers in inclusive education. Her work also includes parent counselling and maintaining reports of the disabled children in her cluster. She is responsible for getting the necessary help for the special child, be it a medical certificate that ensures financial assistance, a hearing aid, a pair of calipers or even language exemption certificate for a child with learning disability. After one year the MRPs are given refresher courses.

Reports

1. Different Approaches for Achieving EFA - Indian Experience, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, 01/01/2003, R.N00.41
- Inclusive Edu- pg 54-55, pg 69-70 pg 198- 200

2. India Education Report, Govinda, R, Oxford University Press, 01/01/2002, N21.G.1.R ,
- Education of children with special needs- by Sudesh Mukhopadhyay and MNG Mani Ch 8 pg 96-108

3. National Curriculum Framework For School Education - A Discussion Document, NCERT, 01/01/2000, R.N20.3
- pg 113

4. National Policy on Education 1986 - Programme of Action 1992, Government of India, R.N00.33,
- Education of the Handicapped- Ch4 pg 17-20

5. Inclusion: A Human Rights Issue, Shah, Jayesh N, Humanscape, 01/07/2001, R.D54.16

6. Sixth All India Educational Survey, Main Report, NCERT, 1999, - Ch 8. Other Forms of Education, OP Arora pg. 89

7. Increasing Democracy and Opportunity for Students in Special Education in American Mainstream Public School, Gail E Thomas Amos, 12th Annual International Democratic Education Conference, December 3-10 2004 Bhubhaneshwar, Orissa put in CED Code

8. Report of Training Course in Integrated Education Vol I II III, May 1999-October 2001, Sir Shapurji Billimoria Foundation R. N24 R.N24.20

9. District Primary Education Programme, Digumati Bhaskara Rao, 01/05/96, B.N21.R60, 1. Interventions for
Children with Disabilities 2. Interventions for Inclusive schooling of Children with Disabilities in DPEP Districts:
National Conference Report

10. Education- Rapid Strides, NAB, Blind Welfare, D54

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Books:

1. Education and Children with Special Needs - From Segregation to Inclusion, Hegarty, Seamus and Alur, Mithu, Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd, 01/01/2002, B.D54.H1

2. W. Stein and Integrated Education, Punani, Bhushan & Rawal, Nandini, Blind Men's Association, 01/01/1995, B.D54.P1

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Audiotapes:

1. Democracy, choice and opportunity for students in special education by Ms Gail Thomas, Soka University, California and Ms. Michelle Weiner Woolner, Play mountain Place, LA, International Democratic Education Conference, 4-13 December 2005, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, Tape 3 (1, side A), N24