For the benefit of all:
For many challenged children, inclusion remains a half-fulfilled
dream
L Subramani
As her little boy child started to grow, Kavitha Krishnamoorthy had to
confront a question -which would be the right school for hhim?
While it may be normal for parents to wrestle with this question,
Kavitha had a reason to ponder over it longer and deeper than many
others. For Ananth, her son, has autism and, as Kavitha feared, schools
were less than welcoming when they learnt about his condition. A few who
did want to admit him had virtually no idea of his requirement.
After nearly wondering if it would be possible at all for Ananth to go
to school, Kavitha finally managed to put him in a Montessori
institution run by someone with experience in special education.
Now seven, Ananth has been lucky enough to go to a school that is
willing to accommodate him and know how to do that, but parents who have
children like him in the cities don't find private schools so
forthcoming.
Indeed, this continues to happen in a state where the government system
has emerged as a shining model for inclusive education.
According to Ruma Banerjee, Managing Trustee of Seva In Action,
Karnataka has set high standards in implementing inclusion amongst its
schools by announcing the first ever inclusive education policy in the
country.
"Karnataka has a long history of mainstreaming children with
disabilities since the 1980s," Ms Banerjee, whose organisation has
worked intensively for the past decade and a half in helping the state
government adopt inclusive education, says.
"And since a number of projects of GOI and UN agencies have been pilot
tested here, there have been opportunities for major learning in this
area."
Rights-based approach
Traditionally, integrated education has been thought as the ideal
approach to bring persons with disability into the mainstream system. It
was thought as a gradual process from a special environment to the
mainstream one, equipping the child to sustain itself in the larger
school dominated by its able-bodied peers.
Inclusive education, on the other hand, has been thought as a
right-based, participatory approach in which the system has been altered
to accommodate all children without exception. Among other things, it
calls for accessible buildings, inclusive teaching practices and a
system that recognises the special child's right to education.
Curriculum adaptation
In Karnataka, Bijapur -a district with 80 per cent of its citizens
living in rural areas- has by far the best model of inclusion in terms
of curriculum adaptation. Using the Inclusive Education Resource
Teachers (IERTs) trained under the Sarva Shiksha Abiyan (SSA) programme,
the district education department has tried several innovative methods
for accomplishing the competencies prescribed for the class by the
curriculum.
The result was TUDITA (pulse), a handbook for Standard 5 Kannada and
Science subjects which can be useful to all children.
"The handbook is based on the Samarthyas (competencies) prescribed for
the subject," says Rajendra Prasad, DDPI (District Director for Primary
Instruction) for Bijapur.
"For instance, children in stad 5 (in science) are taught the functions
of various mechanical devices such as pulleys. To enable CWSN (Children
With Special Needs) achieve the competencies prescribed under the
curriculum, we enable them to physically explore the functioning of the
devices (as a task )."
A visually challenged child, for instance, has the chance to touch and
feel the device while even other children can operate them and
understand how it functions.
"The idea of developing this is to stop CWSN from dropping out as they
progress to higher classes," Rajendra Prasad says. "We are keen that
children should not suffer on account of an inaccessible education
system and have taken efforts to ensure we can make the system flexible
enough to accommodate all children>"
As a ground for several pilot projects since the 1980s, Karnataka has
been able to adopt and implement inclusive education practices before
other states. With the advent of SSA and having experienced NGOs like
Seva In Action have made it possible for the state government to have
the prescribed three-resource teachers-per-block. The state also have
extensive training programmes for government teachers in IE practices.
Discrimination in private schools
However, Ms Banerjee agrees that implementation of inclusive education
in the government system has only partly solved the problem. "Persuading
private schools -which is extremely necessary for inclusion to happen in
urban areas- has proved to be a big challenge for us," she says.
"Besides sensitising a few, we could not largely implement the concept
in the private schools. It is unfortunate that most of them are not
receptive to the idea."
Kavitha and a few other parents of CWSN run a voluntary group called
Kilikili, which has been working to persuade the system at large to
accommodate inclusion. "Private schools either completely turn down
special children, particularly if they have conditions like autism," she
says.
"They fear that such children may have behavioural issues and therefore
feel they cannot be accommodated into the school. There are also a group
of institutions who are interested to admit CWSN, but do not know how
best to make them part of the classroom activities. Some schools, who
claim to be inclusive, have special classrooms for CWSNs and attempt
inclusion only in certain extra-curricular activities such as staging
concerts or dramas."
The problem, Kavitha says, is lack of a comprehensive training system
for those teaching in private schools or managing them. Though this
could affect challenged children at large, Kavitha feels children with
behavioural challenges suffer exclusion more than the others.
Lobbying for incorporating inclusion in the recently proposed Right To
Education (RTE) bill by the union HRD ministry, Kavitha believes that
the system would gradually change to understand the need for inclusion.
BOX:
* Karnataka has 606 Inclusive Education Resource Teachers -three in 202
blocks.
* About 90 per cent government teachers in the primary school level have
been trained in inclusive education.
* * Seva In Action, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, has
been embarking on a study to assess implementation of inclusive
education by various states in the country -which may provide a
comprehensive understanding of its adoption in the country.
* Inclusive education has been a part of the United Nation Convention on
Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD, Article 23), signed and
ratified by India.
* the 86th constitutional amendment has made elementary education a
legal right.
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Janardhana
Naidu
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 8:59 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [AI] Research/survey in visual disability
Hello Subramani Sir, Will you please attach me your article on
"Inclusive
education" to strengthen my research work?
Thanks in anticipation,
G. Janardhananaidu
E mail: [email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Subramani L" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 5:33 PM
Subject: Re: [AI] Research/survey in visual disability
>I just wrote an article about inclusive education. I don't know if I
> will be able to provide exactly what he/she is asking for, but I shall
> try.
>
> Subramani
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Eyeway
> Helpdesk
> Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 4:03 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: [AI] Research/survey in visual disability
>
> Dear friends,
> One of our helpdesk callers wants to get in touch with people who have
> done some research/survey in visual disability in India. She wants
some
> info to write an article and would be happy to give acknowledgement in
> her write-up.
> Members/non-members who might have done it as part of their
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