Inclusive Education: A dream to aspire
This year (2023) the nation celebrated 77th Independence Day and the day was once again celebrated with the promise to have peace, progress and prosperity for the entire nation and its every individual irrespective of caste, colour, gender, religion and status. In 1947 when India got its freedom from the yoke of British colonialism, there was a hope and the hope was of a better future. The common man was very enthusiastic that now the future belongs to him/her and each and every citizen may get equal opportunity for the development of their potentials and talent.
The leadership of the time promised a pure egalitarian society based on the democratic principles of liberty, equality, justice and fraternity. The constitution of India recognised the concept of equality and devised a planned mechanism to have it in its fullest form. It legally ended the inequalities of every type and framed the fundamental guidelines to end the disparities and disadvantages among the different sections of society.
We as a nation have our independent existence of 76 years now and are being ruled through the democratic mechanism. We are yet to have 100% egalitarian society and the big disparities are still there. There is a big divide among the different sections of societies and this division is most evident in the field of education.
Although we have seen many Magna Cartas to end the divide like Bill of Rights {Article 19(A)}, Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016, National Educational Policies but the fact of the matter is that we are yet to have 100% enrollment and universalization of education. We have succeeded in providing the access to all but have failed to provide the 100% equity within the school campuses. Our policies have been such that there is a divide in the schools and the school campuses. Some are treated more and some are yet to get the basic facilities.
Those who are yet to get enrolled, those who are yet to complete the basic education and those who are yet to have the necessary infrastructure in their schools are mostly the children from the far flung areas and from the vulnerable sections of the society. These are the children who are disadvantaged and belong to the backward sections of the society and the children with special abilities.
National Education Policy and Inclusion Education
NEP in its Sixth Chapter titled “Learning for All” has devised the mechanism of equitable and inclusive education to meet the needs of the Socially Economically Disadvantaged Groups. In order to revamp, revise and democratize the education, the NEP has envisaged a number of innovations. One of them being the inclusive education based on core principles of equality and equity.
Inclusive education is a system of education wherein students with and without disability learn together and the system of teaching and learning is suitably needs of different types of students with disabilities. Inclusive education is an approach to education that aims to provide equal opportunities and support for all the students regardless of their background, abilities or gender. It is there to provide the necessary support and environment where diversity is celebrated and all learners are engaged in the process of learning.
The NEP has devised it in such a way that it will benefit all the children of the nation and no child may lose any opportunity to learn and excel because of circumstances of birth or background. It is indeed an essential goal in its own right and critical to achieve an inclusive and equitable society in which every child has the opportunity to dream, thrive and contribute to the nation.
Challenges of Inclusive Education:
Although being of tremendous nature and importance, the inclusive education in our union territory has not been the taken seriously and most of the stake holders are not fully aware about it. Be it in terms of awareness, orientation, capacity building, necessary equipment’s and the basic infrastructure. The society at large is not fully accommodative towards the diversity of the in terms of their abilities and the socio- economic and geographical background.
The determinant factors that refers to the attitude of the community towards persons with disabilities and inclusion is the limited understanding of the concept of diversity, negative attitude towards persons with special abilities and the resistance to change. The challenge towards inclusive education emanates from different directions like attitudinal factors, parental approach, resistance to change the traditional school system and learning environment, lack of clear teaching learning pedagogies and methodologies, lack of instructional and learning materials, inadequate finance, poor response by the society at large, remove barriers to learning and participation.
The need of the hour is that all the stake holders (Policy makers, administration, teacher educators, resource persons, special education teachers, HOI’s and the general line teachers have to take the inclusive education seriously so that there is pure and genuine democratization of education.
