S. Pal1 Dr. Rajeev Vats2 Coordinator, National School For The Handicapped, Ambala Cantt Assistant Project Coordinator, SSA, Ambala

Owing to lack of knowledge, educational access and technology, disabled children were initially treated as unwanted and segregated from other children. Later their education was carried out in special schools. In recent times there has been a shift towards having children with disabilities attend the same schools as non-disabled children. The educationists now feel that each child should be allowed to learn in his own way. The concept of inclusive education has been spelt out in the Salamanca statement and the framework for action on special needs education 1994. It states that all governments have been urged to "adopt as a matter of law or policy, the principle of inclusive education, enrolling all children in regular schools unless there are compelling reasons for doing otherwise". The basic premise is that the school should meet the educational needs of all children irrespective of their disabilities or limitations.

What is Inclusive Education?

It is the implementation of the `policy and process' that allows all children to participate in all programmes. `Policy' means that disabled children should be accepted without any restrictions in all the educational programmes meant for other children. It denotes equality, and accepts every child with his own unique capabilities. This principle must be accepted by all the international, national and local programmes. The `process' of inclusion denotes the ways in which the system makes itself welcoming to all. In terms of inclusion of disabled children, it means the shift in services from `care of the disabled child' to his `education and personal development'. Inclusive education goes one step further by defining these children as `children with special needs' who need special attention, rather than children who are `impaired' or `handicapped'. Inclusive education is nothing but `Making the programme for disabled children as an integral part of the general educational system rather than a system within general education'.

Why Inclusive Education?

UNESCO (1994) states that `All children learn together, whatever possible, regardless of any difficulties or differences they may have. Inclusive schools must recognise and respond to the diverse needs of their students, accommodating both different styles and rates of learning and ensuing quality education to all through appropriate curricula, organisational arrangements, teaching strategies, resource use and partnerships with their communities'. Inclusive education promotes child-to-child learning and participation of parents and community in planning and execution of services for children in general and disabled children in particular.

Some Pioneering Experiments

In several parts of India, the Project Integrated Education for the Disabled (PIED) has been functioning since 1987. A Composite Area Approach (CAA) is followed where regular classroom teachers, specialist teachers, parents and community members jointly work in the programme. The regular teachers are given training in handling disabled children.

Objectives of policies on inclusive education

• The governments have to give the highest policy and budgetary priority to improve their education systems to enable them to include all children regardless of individual differences or difficulties.
• The governments have to adopt as a matter of law or policy the principle of inclusive education, enrolling all children in regular schools unless there are compelling reasons for doing otherwise.
• The training programmes for the teachers have to include the education of disabled children.
• All children have access to general education system, to expand the coverage to reach the unreached population.

Rules and Regulations

If one were to go only by the laws and policies regarding inclusion formulated in this country, there is ample reason to be optimistic. Since the Seventies, various Central Government schemes - especially those for Universalisation of Elementary Education - have been advocating the inclusion of children with disabilities into the mainstream educational system. These include:

• The Integrated Education for Disabled Children Scheme, launched in 1974, to admit children with disabilities in regular schools;
• The National Policy on Education, 1986, which promotes the integration of children with mild disabilities into the mainstream;
• The Project Integrated Education for the Disabled, launched in 1987, which encourages all schools in a neighbourhood to enroll children with disabilities;
• The District Primary Education Programme, 1995, which acknowledges the fact that universalisation of education is possible only if it includes children with disabilities;
• The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, which recommends making changes in assessment and curriculum, and removing architectural barriers, to support inclusion. It also recommends providing free books and uniform for children with disabilities;
• The National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Retardation and Multiple Disability, 1999, which recommends promotion of inclusive education;
• The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA, 2000), which pledges that the "SSA will ensure that every child with special needs, irrespective of the kind, category and degree of disability, is provided education in an appropriate environment";
• The Amendment to the Constitution in 2001, to make education a fundamental right for those in the 6-14 age group, which covers children with disabilities;
• The draft of National Policy for Persons with Disabilities, which has a section on education, stating, "There is a need for mainstreaming of the persons with disabilities in the general education system through inclusive education." It also mentions that children "learn best in the company of their peers";
• A Comprehensive Plan of Action for Children and Youth with Disabilities, presented by the minister for Human Resource Development, Arjun Singh, in March 2005. This Action Plan advocates inclusive education, and envisages making all schools "disabled-friendly" by 2020. In a statement to the Rajya Sabha in March 2005, Arjun Singh also said that selected schools will be converted into model inclusive schools, "in order to demonstrate what is necessary and possible; this exercise will then be extended to schools across the country";

Legislation in favour of inclusion has also been supported by circulars issued by various state and central boards of education, such as the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) and the ICSE. As psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty points out, the circulars list various concessions that children with disabilities can avail of. In a circular issued in May 2005, the CBSE states that children with disabilities should have "barrier-free access to all educational facilities", and that dyslexic students can study one language instead of two and any four of the subjects such as mathematics, science, social science, music and painting, among others. The ICSE provides extra time to students with disabilities to complete exams, as well as writers, if required. The children can also choose from a number of subjects such as yoga and physical training.

Several state governments have similar policies for their boards. The Maharashtra board, for instance, gives students with disabilities extra time during tests, concessions while learning mathematics and the option of studying one language less than what is otherwise mandatory.

Missing targets

The high number of policies in support of inclusion, unfortunately, is in no way indicative of the current situation in the country. Quoting the National Sample Survey Organisation's 2002 report on 'Disabled Persons in India', the draft policy for persons with disabilities, prepared by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, states that 55 percent of those with disabilities are illiterate. This is a "very large and unacceptable percentage," says the draft.

Barriers to inclusion
If attitudes are a problem, so is the physical environment. Javed Abidi, executive director of the centre that conducted the survey on inclusion, says that at one point, special schools were thought to be the answer to those with disabilities. Due to this, "Over a period of time, schools and colleges were built in ways that could not be accessed by those with disabilities - not a single university in our country has a ramp," he says. In fact, in the survey conducted by the centre, lack of trained staff and infrastructure were cited as the main reasons why school authorities were apprehensive about admitting students with disabilities.

Koshi asked principals whether they would make structural changes to their building "to accommodate a challenged child". The private school principals to whom she put the question did reply in the affirmative, but at the same time added that there was no money or space for employing physiotherapists or setting up a language lab.

If lack of funding is publicly touted as an excuse, covert worries of school authorities usually centre on the performance of students with disabilities. In metros such as Mumbai, where competition to score high results in the tenth and 12th standard exams is fierce, many principals believe that children with learning disabilities may pull down the school's top scores. Therefore, they prefer to detain children with disabilities in lower classes. eg. As Rajiv Kumar, a lawyer who is appearing for D'Silva as well as another parent of a child with learning disability, says, "Elite schools are programmed to produce results and principals want credit for success." While concessions seek to ensure that the child does not suffer from an inferiority complex because of failure in exams, principals negate this objective with their attitudes, he adds.

Dr Shetty feels that concessions are a way in which the system "apologises" to students with disabilities for not being able to assess or teach them the way it should be done. Despite that, school authorities view it as a way in which the children - the parents of the children, to be more exact - try to take advantage of the school.

There are hardly any avenues for parents who wish to fight against the school authorities. "Few stand up for fear of their child being victimised," points out Kumar. Suzan Machado's story is a case in point. The mother of a child with learning disabilities, Machado is now fighting a case in the Bombay High Court against her son's school (in Mumbai) for not providing him the concessions that he's eligible for and detaining him in the seventh standard. She says her son is now being confined to the backbenches, though he has difficulty seeing the board from there, and is often made to "sit with girls", which he finds discomfiting.

Even than we will have to accept Inclusive Education as an integral part of general education. Training regular classroom teacher in the area of integrated education, curriculum modification, parental education, appropriate technology and modification, awareness to parents and modification of positive attitude towards the disability are the key point of successful integrated education. We will have to form a state level and district level Resource Group to develop the manpower in special education and it has become the backbone of the scheme. Preparation in the early stage is a factor and our special schools become the pilot Resource Centres in training the teachers, peers and social volunteers. The success stories will be in the paper to highlight our achievements to be the model to achieve the aim 'Education For All' in the coming decades.