Inclusive Education in India and Effective Classroom Practices

Abstract:

For thousands of years in every culture and society physical and mental differences have been ascribed special meaning. This was usually negative and often persists in stigma, negative attitudes and stereotypes today. People were thought to be disabled because they or their parents had done something wrong and all-powerful gods, deities or fate had made them disabled (karma or sin). Disabled people were often subjected to inhuman treatment. Being seen as bringing shame on their families, they were locked away. Euthanasia was widely practised on babies born with significant impairments. Such children were often abandoned and had to rely on begging to survive.11 It was believed that disabled people brought bad luck because they had been cursed or had had a spell placed upon them by witchcraft. They were often viewed as not fully human or possessed by evil spirits. This made it easy to make fun of or ridicule them. They became the butt of jokes and symbols for all the ills of the world. Clowns, court jesters and ‘freak shows’ are illustrations of this. There are many cultural and literary manifestations of this thinking which are still being reinforced in myths, legend or literature. Even modern films, comics and television programmes draw upon and reinforce these negative stereotypes. Stereotypes are bundles of negative and untrue perceptions which often precondition how people treat and respond to disabled people.12

In promoting friendship and loyalty, and in safeguarding the commitment to freedom and peace, basic education can play a Pivotal role and a vital part. This requires, on the one hand, that the facilities of education be available to all irrespective of caste .colour, creed and disabilities. This paper shows the evolutionary and developmental perspectives of inclusive education in India and over the world at large and its effective class room practices.

Introduction:

The right to live with dignity and self-respect as a human being is a crying need of a modern civilization which leads to continuous analysis of policies and services by the Government aiming at  the uplift of the marginalized sections of society.  National Education Policy of our country (India) laid emphasis on ‘Equalization of Educational Opportunity’ and ‘Universalization of Education’. So creating an inclusive environment where children with special needs have to receive equal opportunities in educational sphere. Several initiatives by Governments, NGOs, INGOs, UN agencies and others have been taken to ensure special education for children with disabilities. The genesis of special needs education in India can be traced back to pre-independent India. There are examples in Indian history that show that people with disabilities had educational opportunities, and that disability did not come in the way of learning. However, during the colonial period, India increasingly looked at educational models existing outside the country. Parents of children with disabilities, mainly from urban areas and with exposure to approaches prevalent in western countries, started schools for their children. Since the government had no policy on the education of children with disabilities, it extended grants to these private schools. This approach of setting up separate schools, mostly residential, spread across the country, although it was concentrated in urban areas. However, for a country the size of India, their numbers were small. For over a century, these special schools offered the only education available to children with disabilities because of the widespread belief that children with special needs could not be educated alongside others. This allowed a small number of children to have access to education but did not help these children to enter the mainstream community after completing their education. Now social awareness has been created to provide inclusive education to the children with special needs to fulfil the goal of UEE (Universalization of Elementary Education)

 Historical Perspective of Inclusive Education in India:

After independence, the Indian Constitution directed the state to ensure provision of basic education to all children up to the age of 14 years. The education of people with disabilities was, however, not explicit in the early constitutional provisions except for guaranteeing similar rights for people with disabilities as other members of society. The Education Commission of 1966 (Kothari Commission) drew attention to the education of children with disabilities. In 1974, for the first time, the necessity of integrated education was explicitly emphasized under the scheme for Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC). In pursuit of the goal of providing basic education for all, the National Policy on Education (1986) and its follow-up actions have been major landmarks. The World Declaration on Education for All adopted in 1990 gave further boost to the various processes already set in motion in the country. The Rehabilitation Council of India Act 1992 initiated a training programme for the development of professionals to respond to the needs of students with disabilities. The enactment of the People with Disability Act in 1996 provided legislative support. This act makes it mandatory to provide free education to children with disabilities in an appropriate environment until the age of 18 years. In 1999, the government passed the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act for the economic rehabilitation of people with disabilities. These acts have been instrumental in bringing about a perceptive change improvement in the attitude of government, NGOs and people with disabilities. In recent years, two major initiatives have been launched by the government for achieving the goals of universalization of elementary education (UEE): the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) in 1994 and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in 2002. Programmes launched in the recent past have been able to make only a limited impact in terms of increasing the participation of children with disabilities in formal education. This situation needs to change; a focused effort is required. Keeping in view recent initiatives on inclusive education, a comprehensive review is necessary to help in better understanding the present status of education of children with disabilities, and how inclusive education can be promoted.

Several Aspects of Inclusive Education:

The term inclusion captures, in one word, an all-embracing societal ideology. Regarding individuals with disabilities and special education, inclusion secures opportunities for students with disabilities to learn alongside their non-disabled peers in general education classrooms.

Inclusive education means that all students attend and are welcomed by their neighbourhood schools in age-appropriate, are supported to learn, contribute and participate in all aspects of the life of the school. Inclusive education happens when children with and without disabilities participate and learn together in the same classes. Research shows that when a child with disabilities attends classes alongside peers who do not have disabilities, good things happen.

An inclusive classroom is a general education classroom in which students with and without disabilities learns together. It is essentially the opposite of a special education classroom, where students with disabilities learn with only other students with disabilities.

Inclusive teaching strategies refer to any number of teaching approaches that address the needs of students with a variety of backgrounds, learning styles, and abilities. These strategies contribute to an overall inclusive learning environment, in which students feel equally valued

An inclusive environment requires both individual diversity awareness, skills and effective organizational systems that support diversity and inclusion.  Cultural competence is a set of attitudes, skills and Inclusive practice is an approach to teaching that recognises the diversity of students, enabling all students to access course content, fully participate in learning activities and demonstrate their knowledge and strengths at assessment. In inclusive environment, people of all cultural orientations can freely express who they are, their own opinions and points of view, fully participate in teaching, learning, work and social activities and above all feel safe from abuse, harassment or unfair criticism. Special education is defined as “Specially designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability.”

The integrated approach is one in which learners learn by doing in a learner centred environment in learner-interest contexts.  It allows students to engage in purposeful, relevant learning.  It encourages students to see the interconnectedness and interrelationships between the curriculum areas.

The Integrated lesson  has to be designed to meet the needs of classroom teachers that desire to use physical activity to teach academic content. The content can be taught in the classroom or outside in an outdoor play area.

An inclusive society is a society that over-rides differences of race, gender, class, generation, and geography, and ensures inclusion, equality of opportunity as well as capability of all members of the society to determine an agreed set of social institutions that govern social interaction.

Full inclusion means that all students, regardless of handicapping condition or severity, will be in a regular full time classroom program. All services must be taken to the child in that setting.

Through the implementation of integrated curriculum, teachers help kids see the connections and relevance between subjects. Integrated curriculum is a student-centered approach to teaching. In teaching with an interdisciplinary approach, students are often given a choice, making the subject inherently more meaningful.

International Approach to Inclusive Education:

Education is a human right and therefore we expect that all children, regardless of their social status, gender and physical or any other disability, should have access to quality education. Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in education are major international commitments forwarded by our country in International Forum for the achievement of free, compulsory and universal primary education for all children and the elimination of gender disparities in education at all levels.

 At the 17th Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers, held in South Africa in 2006, ministers agreed to sustain and accelerate their governments’ efforts to attain EFA and the education MDGs. They also directed the Commonwealth Secretariat to provide regular reports on Common wealth progress towards achieving these objectives, and to give priority to member countries that were at risk of failing to achieve them.

The adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, and in particular Article 24, which requires the development of an inclusive education system for all children, presents both a challenge and an opportunity to the countries of the Commonwealth.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities,

Article 24

1. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education. With a view to realizing this right without discrimination and on the basis of equal Opportunity, States Parties shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and life long learning directed to:

(a) The full development of human potential and sense of dignity and self-worth, and the strengthening of respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and human diversity;

(b) The development by persons with disabilities of their personality, talents and creativity, as well as their mental and physical abilities, to their fullest potential;

(c) Enabling persons with disabilities to participate effectively in a free society.

2. In realizing this right, States Parties shall ensure that:

(a) Persons with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of disability, and that children with disabilities are not excluded from free and compulsory primary education, or from secondary education, on the basis of disability;

(b) Persons with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality and free primary education and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live;

(c) Reasonable accommodation of the individual’s requirements is provided;

(d) Persons with disabilities receive the support required, within the general education system, to facilitate their effective education;

(e) Effective individualized support measures are provided in environments that maximize academic and social development, consistent with the goal of full inclusion.

3. States Parties shall enable persons with disabilities to learn life and social development skills to facilitate their full and equal participation in education and as members of the community. To this end, States Parties shall take appropriate measures, including:

(a) Facilitating the learning of Braille, alternative script, augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication and orientation and mobility skills, and facilitating peer support and mentoring;

Four key -elements defined by UNESCO:

UNESCO has identified four key elements that have featured strongly in inclusion practices across all disadvantaged groups:

• Inclusion is a process: Inclusion has to be seen as a never ending search to find better ways of responding to diversity. It is about learning how to appreciate differences and learn from diversity. In this way, differences come to be seen more positively, as a stimulus for fostering learning among both children and adults.

• Inclusion is concerned with the identification and removal of barriers: Consequently, it involves collecting, collating and evaluating information from a wide variety of sources in order to plan for improvements in policy and practice. It is about using evidence of various kinds to stimulate creativity and problem solving.

• Inclusion is about the presence, participation and achievement of all students: ‘Presence’ is concerned with where - children are educated, and how reliably they attend; ‘participation’ relates to the quality of their experiences while they are present and must incorporate the views of the learners themselves; ‘achievement’ is about outcomes of learning across the curriculum, not merely tests or examination results.

• Inclusion involves a particular emphasis on those groups of learners who may be at risk of marginalisation, exclusion or under-achievement. This indicates that there is a moral responsibility to ensure that those groups that are statistically most ‘at risk’ are carefully monitored and that where necessary steps are taken to ensure their presence, participation and achievement in the education system

Progress in Inclusive Education in India:

There are up to 50 million disabled children in India and fewer than 10 per cent attend elementary school (Peters, 2003). NCERT (1998) reported that 20 million children require special needs education, but as the enrolment of disabled children is 5 per cent, compared to 90 per cent for non-disabled children, this is a big underestimate. A recent World Bank study (2007) showed that gender differences are less between disabled boys and girls, reflecting low attendance levels. Illiteracy is 52 per cent for disabled people, compared to 35 per cent in the general population, and in all Indian states the proportion of children with disabilities who do not attend school is 5.5 times that of the general population. Even in the best performing states, a significant proportion of out-of school children are disabled (in Kerala 27 per cent and in Tamil Nadu over 33 per cent).

Historically, NGOs established special schools on the European model. There are now 2,500 special schools, but it has become apparent that such schools can only cater for a small minority of disabled children. An integration programme has gradually developed, but without any training or support in the mainstream. The Government of India is committed to universal elementary education. The constitutional right was given new impetus with the 86th amendment: ‘The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children aged six to fourteen years in such a manner as the State may, by law, determine’.

The District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) set up by the Government was launched in 1994. It is a decentralised programme. Starting in one or two blocks in each state, with one or two clusters of districts, it has now reached the majority of districts, especially in the most backward areas.

In 1997, disabled children were explicitly included in the DPEP. Initially, the focus was on children with mild or moderate learning difficulties. Recently this has been extended to the full range and severity of impairments. In the first six years, 877,000 disabled children were identified across India and 621,760 were enrolled. Through a combination of state, regional and district resource centres and widespread in-service teacher training, practice has begun to change significantly. By 2003 over 1 million teachers had received one day’s training, 171,000 had attended three- to five-day orientation courses and over 4,000 had attended a 45-day orientation course to become master trainers. Different states have adopted different models for training, some relying on NGOs, some on consultants and others on full-time district officers. The project has identified the following key aspects of training for inclusive education:

Key steps for Inclusive education:

• Awareness generation

• Community mobilisation – especially of parents

• Early detection of impairment

• In-service teacher training

• Resource support

• Curriculum adaptation

• Multi-Sectoral convergence

• Provision of essential assistive services, aids and appliances

• Removal of architectural barriers (Government of India, 2003).

DPEP Programme:

 The DPEP has set up alternative schools programme to ensure Education for all at the elementary stage. This provides schools for children aged 6–14 years old, organised flexibly to meet local conditions, which open for four hours a day in single or double shifts. Each school has two teachers, one of whom must be female so that girls are encouraged to attend and their particular needs are met. So far, 200,000 schools have been built

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan:  SSA (Education for All), was launched by the Government, aims to provide eight years of elementary schooling for all children, including children with disabilities, in the 6–14 age group by 2010. The programme provides an additional Rs1200 per ‘challenged’ child to meet additional needs Children with disabilities in the 15–18 age group are given free education under the Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) Scheme. Under SSA, a continuum of educational options, learning aids and tools, mobility assistance and support services are being made available to students with disabilities. They include education through an open learning system and open schools, alternative schooling, distance learning, special schools, home-based education, itinerant teachers, remedial teaching, part-time classes, CBR and vocational education.

However, overall, the spending share on inclusive education in SSA is low – only 1 per cent. There is a big variation in inclusive education spending between states, ranging from 5 per cent of total spending on education in Kerala to under 0.5 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Rajasthan.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development is currently in the process of developing a comprehensive action plan on the inclusion of education of children and youth with disabilities by consulting with experts, NGOs, disability rights groups, parents’ groups and government bodies.

DEVELOPING NATIONAL POLICIES:

A statement spelling out action areas was made in the Rajya Sabha by Shri Arjun Singh, Minister for Human Resource Development, on 21 March 2005. He outlined the framework of the Action Plan and listed the activities developed as a result of the initial consultations. The plan covers the inclusion in education of all children and young persons with disabilities by 2020.38

The main objectives of the Plan are to:

• Ensure that no child is denied admission to mainstream education;

• Ensure that every child has the right to access an anganwadi and school and no child is turned back on grounds of disability;

• Ensure that mainstream and specialist training institutions serving persons with disabilities, in both the government and non-governmental sectors, facilitate the growth of a cadre of teachers trained to work within the principles of inclusion;

• Facilitate access of girls with disabilities and disabled students from rural and remote areas to government hostels;

• Provide home-based learning for persons with severe, multiple and intellectual disability;

• Promote distance education for those who require an individualised pace of learning;

• Emphasise job training and job-orientated vocational training;

• Promote an understanding of the paradigm shift from charity to development through a massive awareness, motivational and sensitisation campaign (World Bank, 2007).

Policies needed	Steps for execution
1. A flexible national curriculum	1. Develop means of making     the curriculum accessible to all
2. Primary education is free to all	2. Disabled pupils and their parents are actively encouraged to enrol
3. Sufficient school places and teachers available	3. All teachers are trained in inclusive teaching and learning
4. Pupil-centred pedagogy whereall can progress at their optimum pace is encouraged	4. Curriculum materials are made accessible
5. Assessment systems are made flexible to include all learners	5. Children learn and are assessed in ways that suit them best
6. Specialist teachers are made available to support mainstream	6. Innovative ways found to expand support for learning
7. Sufficient capital for school building and modification	7. Programmes developed to mobilise communities to build environments

 The various departments at central government level are in the process of developing their work plans. The roles and responsibilities of the implementing agencies and their partners, and the roles of NGOs and parent groups are also being drafted. Monitoring guidelines and performance indicators are being reviewed. The role of special schools, special educators and other support professionals is being assessed within the changing scenario. It is clear that education policy in India has gradually increased the focus on disabled children and adults, and that inclusive education in regular schools has become a prime policy objective. In June 2008, the Government of India, as part of implementing its inclusive education programme, increased resources to support a range of disabled pupils in completing four years of secondary education. This will include students with learning difficulties, mental illness, autism, cerebral palsy, blindness, low vision, leprosy, hearing impairment and loco-motor impairments. It will include a child-specific allowance for support for teachers in specialised teaching styles and identification.

Developing activities for a whole school Approach  –

• Identifying, unlocking and using resources in the community;

• Producing aids and equipment from local low-cost materials;

• Allocating resources to support the learning of all students;

• Listening to teachers, offering support, promoting team teaching and offering relevant practical training;

• Making environments accessible and welcoming;

• Developing and implementing policy to respond to diversity and reduce discrimination;

• Developing child-to-child and peer tutoring;

• Creating links with community organisations and programmes, disabled people’s organisations and parents’ associations;

• Community-based rehabilitation programmes. Proposed solutions to this gender imbalance include:

• More research on enrolment, outcomes and barriers to education for disabled girls;

• Explicit inclusion of disabled girls in all policies and programmes for girls and for all disabled children;

• A comprehensive approach to the prevention of violence against disabled girls, including widespread sex education;

• Targeted outreach to parents to ensure that disabled girls have access to education;

• Targeted scholarships for disabled girls;

• Teacher education that includes training on gender and disability;

• Recruitment of disabled women educators;

• More programmes specifically designed for disabled girls that include access to role models and self-advocacy skills, a focus on assets and parent involvement.

Key factors in the development of inclusive education:

In a recent article assessing progress towards inclusive education around the world, Miles (2007) identifies ten key issues to be addressed in making progress in developing inclusive education in the South.

1. Conducting a situational analysis – identifying existing resources and initiatives and highlighting the way forward.

2. Creating an inclusive learning environment – learning environ ments are often not conducive to the inclusion of disabled children. the community and resources need to be mobilised to transform the situation.

3. Teacher education and ongoing development – teachers are the most valuable resource in the promotion of inclusive practice, but if they do not believe in inclusion they can be a major barrier. They often lack confidence and the basic knowledge to welcome disabled children. They need adequate training to change attitudes and develop good practice.

4. Child-to-child principles hold that children can play a vital role in their own education and the education of their peers.

5. Parents and the community are a valuable human resource

Conclusion:  Inclusion through school improvement – there is a need to improve education for all; changes in practice and thinking that accommodate disabled children will lead to benefits for all. It is important to make sure that disabled children’s needs are part of general policy. Early childhood development and education for disabled children can reduce the disabling impacts of impairment. Economic empowerment and poverty reduction are directly linked to the progress of inclusive education. There are strong cost-effectiveness and economic arguments for education for all in inclusive settings.The role of special schools is a historical reality, but ways need to be found to unleash their resources and the expertise of their staff for the benefit of the majority of disabled children who are not in school.

With out the involvement of disabled people, there is a danger that policy implementers will fail. Disability movements in every country need training to understand these complexities, so that they can become advocates for inclusive education at all levels.  Parents of disabled children have often been in the vanguard of struggling for the full human rights and inclusion of their disabled children. Often it is only parents who see the essential humanity in their children through their love for them. All too often that relationship is broken by outside interventions. States should work in alliance with these parents and their organisations. Parents need training, support and empowerment so that they can become allies of their children in their struggle for human rights.

Suggestions:

1.     Links and bridges need to be built between special schools and inclusive education practices. Linkages also need to be established between community-based rehabilitation programmes and inclusive education.

2.     Public policies, supportive legislation and budgetary allocations should not be based on incidence, but on prevalence of special education needs, and take into consideration the backlog created as a result of decades of neglect.

3.     The existing dual ministry responsibilities should be changed. Education of children with disabilities should be the responsibility of the Department of Education. The Ministry of Welfare should confine itself to support activities only.

4.      Inclusion without ‘adequate’ preparation of general schools will not yield satisfactory results. It is essential that issues related to infrastructural facilities, curriculum modification and educational materials should be addressed.

5.     Regular evaluation should be based on performance indicators specified in the implementation programme, and accountability for effective implementation at all levels should be ensured.

6.      There should be emphasis on bottom-up, school-based interventions as part of regular education programmes following inclusive strategies. The programme should be based stakeholder participation, community mobilization, and mobilization of NGO, private and government resources.

7.     The training of general teachers at pre-service and in-service levels should address the issue of education of children with disabilities, so that teachers are better equipped to work in an inclusive environment. Some of the issues in training that need to be addressed include the methodology to be adopted for identifying children with disabilities; classroom management; use of appropriate teaching methodologies; skills for adapting the curriculum; development of teaching–learning materials that are multi-sensory in nature; evaluation of learning; etc. The time has come to scale up successful experiments on teacher training such as the Multi-site Action Research Project and the Indian adaptation of the UNESCO Teacher Education Resource Pack, since these experiences are lying dormant.

References:

1.     Booth, T. et al. (2001). Index to Measure the Impact of Inclusive Education. CSIE, UK.CABE (1994). Xxx. Central Advisory Board of Education, Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, New Delhi

2.     NCERT (1998). Sixth All-India Educational Survey. National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi.

3.     MHRD (1986). National Policy on Education. Ministry of Human Resource Development,New Delhi.

4.     MHRD (1992). National Policy on Education. Ministry of Human Resource Development,New Delhi.

5.     UNESCO (1996). Resource Teacher Education Resource Pack: Special Needs in the Classroom.UNESCO, Paris .

6.     Verma, J. (2002). An Evaluation of IEDC in DPEP and Non-DPEP Districts. National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi.

7.     Singal, N. (2006b). An ecosystemic approach for understanding inclusive education: An Indian case study. European Journal of Psychology of Education, Special issue: Ten years after Salamanca, XXI (3): p. 239-252.

8.     Tilak, J.B.G. (2005). Post-elementary education, poverty and development in India. Paper presented at the 8th UKFIET International Conference on Education and Development: Learning and livelihoods. Oxford: UK.

9.     Thomas, P. (2005). Mainstreaming disability in development: India country report. Availablfrom: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTSARREGTOPLABSOCPRO/1211714-1144074285477/20873614/IndiaReportDFID.pdf

Thomas, G. and O’ Hanlon, C. (2001). Series editors Preface. In G. Thomas, and A. Loxley (Eds.), Deconstructing Special Education and Constructing Inclusion.