Journal of Learning and Educational Policy (JLEP) ISSN 2799-1121 · Vol. 3, No. 01 (2023) · pp. 88-94
Research Paper

Inclusive education: a step towards development of right based society

Prerna Baria1
  1. 1 Student, Indian Institute of Teacher Education, Gandhinagar, India.
  2. * Corresponding author: Prerna Baria, 0101010620200008@iite.ac.in
Received21 December 2022
Revised24 February 2023
Accepted5 March 2023
Published20 April 2023
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.55529/jlep.32.37.43
LicenceCC BY 4.0
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Abstract

Background: Education is widely seen as a basic human right, confirmed in national as well as international agreements and written into constitutional rules. It also works like a real lever for social change, helping people move upward in the social structure. In a democratic society, an educated citizenry is not optional, because each person has responsibilities for positive results, but also for the negative shifts that can happen. Inclusive education is often, kind of mistakenly treated as if it only concerns children with disabilities, but in truth it points to a wider principle of non-exclusion, a respect for intrinsic human dignity, and a genuine participation of everyone, no matter their traits or circumstances. Objective: The aim here is to clear up what inclusive education really means and how far it reaches, then to look at why communities, institutions, and governments need to shift their mindsets toward it. Along the way, the focus is on the obstacles that appear when it gets tested in real practice, not only in theory. Method: This is a conceptual and descriptive analysis, it draws on constitutional provisions, human rights frameworks and on what people already understand about inclusive education. The method means we check common misunderstandings, then see how the concept is applied to “all learners” with or without assistance structures, and finally judge how ready society feels for this kind of change. Result: Inclusive education seems to go beyond disability only frameworks and it tries to bring every learner in, in a kind of supportive, no- discrimination setting. There is this ongoing gap between what people say inclusive education is, versus what happens day to day in schools, neighborhoods, and even government offices. Giving learners, especially learners with disabilities, the right know-how, actual tools, plus guidance really shows up as necessary, so they can manage daily life with some independence and dignity, inside an inclusive society. Conclusion: Reaching a genuinely inclusive society calls for a major shift in how people collectively think about inclusive education. It should move past a narrow, disability-centric way of seeing things, right. Long-term work matters, from communities, learning institutions, and governments, so that social acceptance grows, discrimination is reduced, and education becomes fair and reachable for everyone, and that way the bigger aim of societal inclusion gets stronger.

Keywords: Right to Education, Inclusion, Education, Diverse Learners, Special Educational Needs, Social Change.

1. INTRODUCTION

In the year 1994 Salamanca statement was published after which huge number of researches have been done addressing the issues of inclusive education. According to Salamanca statement special education was about to be replaced by inclusive education where in need of all diverse learners will be fulfilled in the mainstream classroom. Still there is a lack in progress and even the concept of Inclusion in education is misunderstood by many [1]. Some problems with implementation of inclusive education are the absence of knowledge of how to actually create inclusive environment in mainstream classroom and the main aspect is the attitudes and different opinions of teachers and parents as well. For the successful implementation of inclusive education, a proper balance of resources, goodwill and monitoring of its progress is most important. Inclusive education is not just a new approach to education but it is a philosophy, a value to be followed [2].

1.1. Barriers in Implementation of Inclusive Education

The main objective of inclusive education is to remove all barriers to learning, and full participation of all diverse learner with no marginalization [3]. It is a process by which all schools to include all learners with right training of human resources, strategies and support to diverse educational needs. But it has been noticed since so long that these provisions are only on papers. No efforts are made for implementation of inclusive education, and some efforts are lacking behind due to some barriers. Therefore, it becomes necessary to understand the barriers to inclusion for successful implementation of inclusive education.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) “The barriers are the factors in a person’s environment that, through their absence or presence, limit functioning and create disability” which include following barriers:

  • An environment which is not physically accessible,
  • Absence of necessary assistive and teaching learning aids (assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices),
  • Lack of positive attitude and understanding of disability in people
  • Various policies and approaches which just only exists and some exist which exclude leaners having various health issues Here are the five common barriers. Often, more than one barrier occurs at a time.
  • Physical Barriers
  • Psychological Barriers
  • Socio-cultural Barriers
  • Instructional Barriers
  • Institutional/Systemic Barriers This differentiation is made based on the nature of the barrier, its cause and effect as well. Each and every barrier is important to overcome as to develop full inclusion of diverse learners in the education system and full participation of these learners as active participant in society. Every barrier has a lot of things or sub-barriers which are discussed below.

1.2. Physical Barriers

The structural barriers in natural environment which may interfere in mobility. It can be structure of a building’s stairs, doorways, structure of a classroom, width of sidewalks, congested desk, poor lighting in a classroom, high doorknobs, much distance between school and home, even the lack of transportation facilities from home to school etc.

1.3. Psychological Barriers

since most of the schools are emphasizing on intelligence cultivation rather than holistic development and holistic education as well. Many parents are wondering what inclusion will do to the special education population. Unfortunately, parents report that their children receive no assistance and worst of all, the special educator is rarely present [4]. Families and peers may not encourage participation of disabled students and may make fun of them. Psychological barriers related to teachers, students and parents such as feeling worthless by disabled student, fear in disabled students, mentality of normal students towards disabled students, attitude of teachers, attitude of parents, shyness, inferiority, boredom in normal students, peer rejection due to lack of awareness, parental apathy, prejudice and discrimination by teachers, stereotyping etc.

1.4. Socio-Cultural Barriers

Cultural background of students with or without disability may affect the learning process in an inclusive classroom. Families of disabled children may not allow them to go to school as they are bullied and made fun of Sometimes no support is provided by the society and family to be equal participant in a society [5].

1.5. Instructional Barriers

Instructional barriers such as lack of teaching aids, teaching learning material, the teaching techniques used by the teacher. Well-developed individualized educational programs should be provided to the students [6].

1.6. Institutional Barriers

Learners with disability and special educational needs must be provided with positive environment and healthy relationship in peer group. Institution should make sure that will be forming rules and regulation they keep in mind all the learners. This will create a school as place where the learner will love to go and get educated.

1.7. Other Major Barriers

  • Lack of professional training to teachers and experience to teach students with disabilities and proficiency in teaching planning for disabled children.
  • Less involvement of government in providing low-cost equipment and awareness about how and why disabled children must have equal rights.
  • In rural areas health services and treatments are not available and where available it is costly.
  • Few scholarship schemes are provided by government and some disabled students and their families are not even aware about those schemes.
  • Lack of vocational guidance to the disabled students and very limited opportunity to shine out bright.
  • Poverty, gender, race and disability
  • Policy development
  • Information and accessibility
  • Development in teacher education
  • Inclusive learning environment
  • Lack of family and community involvement
  • Lack of early childhood interventions

1.8. Parents Role in Inclusive Education

A common goal of parents and educators is that children with special need get benefits from the school experiences. Parents and teachers must work together for better support to disabled children. Together they can understand the need of disabled learners as well as fulfill their need. Parents know their child better than a teacher does. Interest, like, dislike, intellectual ability etc. are better understood by parents and with proper communication with teacher they can help the disabled student to be equal part of society. As a parent it is important to be a part of decision making in education of their child [7].

1.9. Role of Teachers

Teacher plays an important role in implementation of inclusive education. The very first role of a teacher in an inclusive classroom is to identify diverse needs of diverse learner and at the same time recognition of a student with special needs is necessary. Once the recognition of student with special educational need is done than the next step for teacher would be referring that student to special teacher or resource person for further treatment and management of educational need of a student. For this the teacher must accept the individual differences among learners which can be done by building positive attitude towards diversity in learners. A teacher must consider all the learners and their educational needs equal; no discrimination should be made between the learner with special educational needs and learner with general educational needs. Some leaners having visual impairment or hearing impairment should be placed in a proper classroom seating in order to make them learn and feel comfortable in classroom environment. Teacher should make sure that the institution is doing all the efforts in removing architectural barrier so that learner having disability can move on their own. Facilities such as ramp, lift direction indicators etc. help in removing architectural barriers [8]. The curriculum which is made for learners with normal educational needs will not be much effective and beneficial for learners with special educational needs and so there raises another issue of making certain changes. The change in the curriculum will only succeed if the transaction of a curriculum is done proper planning and using various teaching learning materials. Learner remains in the school for very few hours and most of the time they spend with their parents and family. So, for a teacher it is necessary to make sure that learner with special educational need get positive environment at home as well which can be done through parental guidance and various awareness campaign for the society. In an inclusive school good communication and coordination in between normal teacher and special educator is important. Normal teacher must discuss all the issue related to learner with special educational needs with special educator to solve the issue and help the learner. Special educator should make sure that diagnosis and treatment of leaner with special educational need is done in the institution. A teacher can also conduct an action research or case study under the guidance of special educator to solve classroom issues. Teacher should develop evaluation pattern which is developed by considering all the diverse learners [9]. To make sure that disabled learners are provided with modified toilets and various another facility comes under the role of a teacher.

1.10. How to Overcome Barriers to Develop Right Based Society

Professional development of teachers including general teachers and special educators. As teacher are getting less time, time and training should be given to the teachers to plan the educational experiences, meet the diverse needs of the learners, create various teaching leaning aids and develop evaluate the student. Reduce the size of class and maintained ratio of normal students and disabled students. Skill development programs for teachers such as learning together by helping each other, teaching together and making necessary changes in curriculum. Collaboration between parents, teachers and administrators. Adequate support and services for the students. Understanding the individual differences and various educational needs by discussion. Classroom activities and various group activities to build a good and healthy communication in classroom [10], [11]. Teachers to focus more on strength of the disabled students rather than their weakness. Every child is different on their own but a teacher needs to help them to draw out the best of their abilities and grow independently. Therefore, today all the educational institutions need to focus on boosting the self-esteem of the learner rather than telling them their weaknesses. The major concern of school and teacher should be developing self-respect in learners and make disabled learners capable of standing in a society and fight for their rights [12], [13]. Focus should be more on the child’s positive attitudes, even his quality to deal with the problem they are facing with a smiling face. Motivate disabled learners by showing them strong approval of their efforts and performance. Help learner to focus on their continuous improvement and evaluate their own achievements so that they grow. Classroom activities must be capable of addressing all the diverse needs and full participation must be possible. It is important to give each and every learner equal attention so that it can boost their confidence and selfesteem.

2. CONCLUSION

A lot has to be done for India’s large young and blooming masses. Everyone has a right to education. Inclusive education is a change in an education system which will ensure the active presence, full participation and achievement of all diverse learners in education. A major concern of an inclusive education are the learners who are being excluded due to their special educational needs. It enables teachers and students as well to see diversity as an asset and not a problem. Inclusion does not agree with the concept of special schools or classrooms wherein learners with special educational needs are educated. Major focus is given to that group of excluded learners with full participation with due respect in the society.it seeks to the development of potential of leaner with special educational need which as an end product will give raise to right based society. It has now become important to remove all the barriers in implementation of inclusive education. Through all the literature reviews it can be concluded that the planning and implementation of inclusive education is just on paper. It is not an educational strategy or approach to be applied but it is a value to followed. Inclusive education exists right from Salamanca statement after which so many policies focused on disabled and marginalized learners, some of the policies was made just for disabled students but still it is not accepted by the society. For acceptance and understanding of inclusive education in society awareness programs are need to be conducted to make society understand the need of inclusive education. An individual must have equal rights and opportunities as a part of society. Education is considered as the only instrument to remove all kind of marginalization and fulfilment of needs of all diverse learners. Many disabled students as well as parents of disabled students are not aware about various schemes for them. Due to which the policies and schemes have become worthless as it is not fulfilling its objective. A huge development in teacher education is required as researches has shown that there is a lack of awareness and negative attitude of teachers towards inclusive education. In teacher education also courses such as bachelor in special education is there, and this results in marginalization. Instead, it is necessary to develop such teacher education courses which help an individual to deal with all the diverse learners in a classroom and fulfill their educational needs. No one have similar kind of educational needs so teachers must be well equipped to fulfill all needs of learners.

Acknowledgments

The authors have no specific acknowledgments to make for this research.

Funding Information

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or notfor-profit sectors.

Author Contributions Statement

Name of AuthorCMSoVaFoIRDOEViSuPFu
Prerna Baria✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓✓

C: Conceptualization; M: Methodology; So: Software; Va: Validation; Fo: Formal analysis; I: Investigation; R: Resources; D: Data curation; O: Writing – original draft; E: Writing – review & editing; Vi: Visualization; Su: Supervision; P: Project administration; Fu: Funding acquisition.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Informed Consent

All participants were informed about the purpose of the study, and their voluntary consent was obtained prior to data collection.

Ethical Approval

Not Applicable.

Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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How to cite: Prerna Baria (2023). Inclusive education: a step towards development of right based society. Journal of Learning and Educational Policy, 3(01), 88-94. https://doi.org/10.55529/jlep.32.37.43

Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Published by HM Publishers.