FUNDAMENTAL OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Inclusive Education is an approach to educate all children who are at risk for neglect in education system. It expects that all learners learn together through access to common educational provisions. The crucial people in the system are the parents, and community, teachers, administrators and policy makers. All these people have to be supportive towards the diverse needs of children. It should be seen as an experience rather than a problem.

Need of inclusive education

There are two reasons for inclusive education.

Ideologically

Technically

Ideologically-Inclusive education is needed to bring in unity in diversity.

Technically- schools are important places for children to develop friendships and learn social skills 

It is the right of every child to get education. The society needs variety of people for the progress of humanity. Inclusive education becomes important to fulfill this.

Human Rights

 All children have the right to learn together.

 No one can discriminate children because of their learning ability and social,  economical, cultural and family background.

Education

Research shows children do better, academically and socially in inclusive settings.

 Given commitment and support, inclusive education is a more efficient use of educational resources.

Social

All children develop relationships with variety of people around them and this prepares them for life in the mainstream.

 Inclusion has the potential to reduce fear and build friendship  Mutual respect, understanding and compassion increases among the fellow individuals.

Psychological

 Development of safe and secure feeling in the group

Confidence in the individual ability among the diversity

Inclusive education helps the development of children in different ways. Students with specific challenges make gains in physical, cognitive and social development and motor skills. They do well when the general environment is adjusted to meet their needs. Children in the schools develop higher levels of tolerance for people with diversities in general and those who are disadvantaged. When we exclude children from the education system, there begins a demarcation in the society. It is very difficult to include them in the later stages for any purpose in the community. Thus, inclusive education lays the foundation to an inclusive society accepting, respecting and celebrating diversity (MHRD, 2005).

OTHER CONCEPTS RELATED TO INCLUSIVE

Over the years the term ‘Inclusive Education’ has come to replace the term ‘Integrated Education’. Many people working in the field of education consider these two terms to be meaning the same thing. They understand it as only a change in terminology. But the term inclusive education means much more than integrated education. Integration and mainstreaming are the terms used over the years to denote the shift to stop the segregation of children with disability for the purpose of education. Inclusive education is a very broad term that calls to stop the segregation of children for the purpose of education.

Mainstreaming

Initially an attempt was made to implement the vision of providing education to children with disabilities in the regular stream of education. According to this,  special schools prepared the child with disability to earn the placement option. Those children who were ‘ready’ got shifted to the regular system of education

Integration

The term integration was used to describe the participation of children with disabilities in the educational programme existing for the children without disabilities. Here, the responsibility of participation was on the child. Classrooms and schools were not prepared to adjust to the needs and requirements of the child with regard to material or method of teaching -learning. The placement was more of spatial (being in the same classroom) and temporal (at the same time).

Inclusion

No doubt, all the above thoughts and practices prepared the ground for us to implement a broader, democratic vision – inclusive education. This refers to restructuring schools as communities where all children can learn in a common environment without any discrimination. The general philosophy of inclusive education provides for good teaching practices, healthy relationship between teacher and students to improve the quality of education for all children in a classroom. Regular classroom environment is adjusted to meet the individual needs. The spatial and temporal placement as per integration is utilized to the benefit of the child through adapting curriculum, providing extra time, adapting specific methods of teaching and giving additional adult help.

Difference between Inclusive education and integrated education

Both have one aim in common, that both are concerned with placement of children with disabilities in the regular school. Other than this commonality, they are different in many ways.

Integration is the process of accommodating children and young people with disabilities into mainstream schools. The emphasis within integration is to ‘fit’ the child into the system. In integration children with disabilities had to be equipped to suit the existing system. The emphasis was on preparing the child to adjust to the expectations of the classroom. For example, children with hearing impairment will be fitted with suitable amplification devise (hearing aids).

Auditory and speech training will be given to the child in the resource room. A child with visual impairment will be sent either to the resource room or to a specialized centre to learn Braille. A child with loco- motor handicap will be provided with mobility devices. The physical infrastructure of the school / classroom will be modified, so that the child can have free access to the school.  This was a welcome move indeed towards changing the mindset of the people.

No doubt integration prepared us for the implementation of inclusion.