Inclusive Education

Recommendation to send children with disabilities to mainstream schools were first made in the Sargent Report in 1944, and again in 1964 by the Kothari commission despite this, change has been slow, with segregation in special schools dominating the scene until recently. Several educational acts and promises have been passed by central government of India in the past years, although they do not seem to tackle the roots of attitudinal barriers to inclusion. For example, in 1993 the Delhi Declaration on Education for All promised to ----- ensure a place for every child in a school or appropriate education programe according to his or her capabilities. This issue of capabilities is key to the varied interpretation of inclusivity of children, the focus on the childs abilities diverting attention away from inadequate teaching methods. This is perhaps true for some teachers, but the continued development of government and NGO teacher training programmes would also appear to show awareness of the need for pedagogical change. The 1995 persons with Disabilities Act (PDA) states that disabled children should be educated in the integrated settings where possible. Different types of schooling being deemed appropriate for different strata of society can be perceived as fundamentally exclusionary. Itinerant teachers, community based rehabilitation special schools, non-formal education, and vocational centers all have something to offer children marginalised by the mainstream in educational terms such as acquiring literacy, living skills and financial independence. It is arguable that special education is in fact regarded as superior in India due to its preferred status, and that it is inclusion in the mainstream that is currently seen as the resource-constrained inferior alternative. However, the limited coverage of mainly urban-based, impairment-specific special schools in India may result in the exclusion of children with disabilities who do not fit the categroisation of these institution or who live in rural areas only 42% disabled are literate and 9%

disabled have secondary level education. So Inclusive education may be the only way of facilitating educational access for these children. A twin-track approach to disability may assist not only in improving educational access for margnialised children, but also the reconceptualization of inclusive education as a school quality issue to benefit all children. This could contribute in the long-term towards the achievement of education for all and fulfillment of the Fundamental Right to Education enshrined in the constitution of India in 2002.