INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FROM POLICY TO PRACTISE

In an uncaring society which has earned a notorious global reputation for hypocritical piety and neglect of marginalised communities, there is an impinging reality of disabled people accessing the basic needs and rights in society to fulfill a life with dignity. It is estimated that 40% of over 70 million disabled people in India are children with disabilities. In absolute terms this translates to around 20 million disabled children in the age group 6-14 years and a startling fact is that 90% of them are out of school. India is one of the few countries in the world where a majority of disabled children do not receive any form of education.

Factors :

The ubiquitous cause for this is the negative attitude towards disabled people and lack of understanding of the education machineries to recognize the potentials of disabled people. Psychologically, the thinking is that disabled people are considered dependent, tragic; some one needing help and people who are not productive. This is coupled with the charity approach further alienating them. 82% of disabled people live in rural India and 70% of disabled people come from poor communities. Parents of children with disabilities from this large community have even more difficult choices, as they struggle to pay for medical treatment, special equipment and transport for the disabled child. Many parents, if they have 4 children, 1 of whom is disabled, will focus on sending the other 3 to school and not worry about getting the disabled child into school.

Over the decades, the approach of education for disabled children has been primarily towards special education, with over 3,000 special schools in India today. Of them, 900 are schools for the hearing impaired, 400 for children with visual impairment, and 700 for those with locomotor disabilities, and 1,000 for the intellectually disabled. Tragically, in a country where there is less than 10 braille press, only 33% of students in such schools have books in Braille or other accessible formats.

The persons with disabilities equal opportunities act 1995 provides for 3% reservation in all educational institutions for disabled children. It also provides for provision of education materials, transportation facilities and creation of barrier free environment. These services are dysfunctional in the country especially in rural India where there are no special schools and the door of the regular school being shut to disabled children.

Irony :

Keeping with the spirit of social justice and equity which are dominant sentiments of the Constitution of India the government launched the Sarva Siksha Abhayan (education for all) a campaign promoting education for all including children from the disadvantaged communities. In reality, this campaign has failed to reach out to disabled children largely in rural India; there is no disaggregated data of number of disabled children enrolled in regular schools. Lack of skills and knowledge of the teachers cuppled with the poor attitude has kept the children out. The most depressing fact is that even the funds allocated for disabled children under this programme is less than 1%.

Need of the hour :

With all these anomalies, there is a dire need to create more sensitivity in society as a whole to disability issues and to raise the awareness of community, public and the parents of disabled children about their rights and potential. Government policy, legislative actions, schemes and provisions for disabled people give the impression of a state that is committed to human rights and equal opportunities but in reality, there are no systems in place adapted particularly by the ministry of education to provide the infrastructure in all schools around the country to promote inclusion of disabled children into mainstream education processes. This in vogue is a blatant violation of the fundamental right to education of a sizable population who’s right to education is denied by virtue of them being disabled.

India has recently ratified the UNCRPD, Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with a Disability promotes; one education system that allows all children to receive a quality education. One set of standards for all children. The article also recognizes that the standards can be adapted where necessary and accommodation made with recognition that disability is not the same as having a special educational need.

There is a need for a holistic approach on this issue. We need to change the education system and approach to make it accessible to all children and prepare the society – public, parents and government missionaries to promote inclusive education for disabled children. There needs to be a greater accountability from both the civil society sector and government structures particularly at the primary school level and the ministry of education right from enrolment of disabled children to providing an appropriate environment for learning. Efferts should be towards building capacity of the teachers and officials in the education cadre in promoting inclusive education and particularly towards changing attitudes. A robust monitoring system needs to be set up to ensure enrolment of disabled children, creation of disaggregated data on the number of disabled children in every school, mobilization of accessible education materials, channelising of funds appropriately to create a barrier free environment and provision of transport facility. Finally, the response of the public in facilitating this process will enable the large disadvantaged population to access education.

Praveen Kumar G