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UNIVERSITY OF LUCKNOW
SESSION:- 2021-23

Topic:- “Historical perspective of inclusive education

for children with special needs”

Subject:- Inclusive Education

Submitted To- Prof. Amita Bajpai
Submitted By- Yashwant Singh
(BEd IInd Sem, Roll No. 45)
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HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF
INCLUSIVE EDUCATION FOR
CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Introduction
‘’All children and young people of the world, with their individual strengths and
weaknesses, with their hopes and expectations, have the right to education. It is
not our education systems that have a right to certain types of children.
Therefore, it is the school system of a country that must be adjusted to meet the
needs of all children".

Inclusive education has increasingly become a focus of debate in discussions

about the development of educational policy and practice around the world.
Scholars like Pijl (1997) have described inclusive education as a ‘global
agenda’. Inclusive education, therefore, is now seen as central to human rights
and equal opportunities and a priority policy objective of liberal democracies
including India where Right to Education is constitutionalized. The inclusive
education starts its journey from special education which concerns with
segregation through integrating children with special needs (CWSN).

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Definitions of Special, Integrated and Inclusive

Education -

Special Education
Children with disability study either in a special school or in a regular
mainstream school. It is possible for these children to cross over from a special
to a regular mainstream school if and when they want to. Special Education as a

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separate system of education for disabled children outside the mainstream

education evolved way back in the 1880s in India. It was based on the
assumption that children with disability had some special needs that could not
be met in mainstream. Schools and therefore, they need to study in a separate
school with other children having similar needs. Special schools exists all over
the world in the form of day or residential schools, and also special classes are
attached to the mainstream schools. In 1947, India had a total of 32 schools for
the blind, 30 for the deaf and 3 for mentally retarded. The number of schools
rose to around 3000 by the year 2000 (Department of Education, 2000).

Integrated Education
We already know that integrated education is not the same as inclusive
education. There is a vast difference between the two approaches. Integrated
education emphasises placement of children with disability in mainstream
school. The major thrust is on attendance. The school system remains rigid and
as a result very few children with disability are able to cope with the demands
of such a rigid system. This is a system that does not accept many of our
children with disability on the basis of not being prepared enough.

In other words, in integrated education, the child is seen as a problem and not
the system. S/he is considered to be different from others and if s/he cannot
learn it is her/his problem. Hence, integrated education is based on the medical
model of disability and views a child with disability with clinical blinders
needing remedy. Inclusive education, on the other hand, is all about effective
learning by all children including children with disability. It is based on the
social model of disability and considers that if the child is not learning then the
system needs to be blamed. Inclusive education emphasises quality of education
and not mere placement in education.

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Inclusive Education
Inclusive education is about embracing all. Inclusion is not confined to the
disabled. It also means non-exclusion. Over the years, the term ‘inclusive
education’ has come to replace the term ‘integrated education’. Many people
working in the field of education in our country consider these two terms to be
meaning the same thing. They understand it as only a change in terminology
and nothing else. In their words inclusive education means “including children
with disability in regular classrooms that have been designed for children
without disability”. We must understand that the term inclusive education
means much more than this. It refers to an education system that accommodates
all children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic
or other conditions. The range of challenges confronting the school system
while including children with diverse abilities and from diverse backgrounds
have to be met by creating a child-centred pedagogy capable of successfully
educating all children. An inclusive class may have amongst others, children
with disability or gifted children, street or working children, children from
remote or nomadic populations, children belonging to ethnic, linguistic or
cultural minorities or children from other disadvantaged or marginalised groups.
Inclusive Education is about restructuring the cultures, policies and practices in
schools so that they respond to the diversity of students in their locality.

Background of the Inclusive Education Programme

The government of India is constitutionally committed to ensuring the right of

every child to basic education. The Government of India has created numerous
policies around special education since the country’s independence in 1947.
One of the earliest formal initiatives undertaken by the GOI was the Integrated
Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) scheme of 1974. The Kothari
Commission (1966) which highlighted the importance of educating children
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with disabilities during the post-independence period. In 1980s the then

ministry of Welfare, Govt. of India, realized the crucial need of an institution to
monitor and regulate the HRD programmes in the field of disability
rehabilitation. Till 1990s, ninety percent of India’s estimated 40 million children
in the age group- four-sixteen years with physical and mental disabilities are
being excluded from mainstream education. The National Policy on Education,
1986 (NPE, 1986), and the Programme of Action (1992) stresses the need for
integrating children with special needs with other groups. The Government of
India implemented the District Primary Education Project (DPEP) in 1994–95.
In late 90s (i.e. in 1997) the philosophy of inclusive education is added in
District Primary Education Programme (DPEP). This programme laid special
emphasis on the integration of children with mild to moderate disabilities, in
line with world trends, and became one of the GOI‟s largest flagship
programmes of the time in terms of funding with 40,000 million rupees
(approximately 740 million US dollars). Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) was
launched to achieve the goal of Universalisation of Elementary Education in
2001, is one such initiative. Three important aspect of UEE are access,
enrolment and retention of all children in 6-14 years of age. A zero rejection
policy has been adopted under SSA, which ensures that every Child with
Special Needs (CWSN), irrespective of the kind, category and degree of
disability, is provided meaningful and quality education. National Curriculum
Framework (NCF) 2005 has laid down a clear context of inclusive education. In
2005, the Ministry of Human Resource Development implemented a National
Action Plan for the inclusion in education of children and youth with
disabilities. Furthermore, IEDC was revised and named „Inclusive Education of
the Disabled at the Secondary Stage‟ (IEDSS) in 2009-10 to provide assistance
for the inclusive education of the disabled children at 9th and 10th classes. This
scheme now subsumed under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)

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from 2013. It is important to integrate these children into regular schools to help
them socialise and build their confidence.

Policy and Legislative Frameworks:

Various policies and legislative frameworks have been initiated internationally

and nationally for education for all and especially for including the children
from marginalised section in the education system. Various committees,
commissions, Acts and scheme have been made and implemented for
universalization of elementary education and for enabling school to access and
welcome the children from various grounds irrespective of gender, caste, socio
economic condition and special needs. Some important among them are given
below.

World Commitment on Education as a Right: The right of every child to

education is proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
and was strongly reaffirmed by the World Declaration on Education for All
(1990) held at Jomtien, Thailand that intensifies large numbers of vulnerable
and marginalized group of learners were excluded from the education system
worldwide. It is a conference in the development of thinking about inclusive
education. The philosophy of the declaration included the following statements:

• Every person – child, youth and adult – shall be able to benefit from
educational opportunities designed to meet their basic learning needs.

UN Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with

Disabilities (1993) was an important resolution for improving the educational
conditions of persons with disabilities. This had major implications for the
Indian situation in the form of three legislative acts – the RCI Act (1992), PWD
Act (1995) and National Trust Act (1999).

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The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Disability

Education (1994) emerged as a result of deliberations held by more than 300
participants representing 92 governments including India and 25 international
organisations in June 1994 which aimed to further the objective of education for
all by enabling schools to serve all children particularly those with special
educational needs. The conference emphasized that school should
accommodate all children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social,
emotional, linguistic or other conditions. The statement affirms, “Those with
special educational needs must have access to regular schools which should
accommodate them within a child centred pedagogy capable of meeting these
needs”

Constitutional Safeguards: In India the constitution states that everyone has

the right to equality of status and opportunity. It ensures for all its citizens
equality before law, non-discrimination and the right to life and liberty (Article
14, 15,19 and 21 respectively in the constitution). Though these articles
specifically do not refers to differently abled children. Article 41 of the
Directive principles of public assistance in certain cases including disablement.
Based on 86th amendment of the constitution in 2002, Article 21-A stated
education as a fundamental right of all children in the age group of 6-14 years.

Kothari Commission (1964–66): Officially the Kothari commission first

addressed the issues of access and participation by all. It stressed a common
school system open to all children irrespective of caste, creed, community,
religion, economic condition and social status.

NPE- 1968: On the basis of recommendation of education commission, in 1968,

the National Education Policy followed suggested the expansion of educational
facilities for physically and mentally handicapped children, and the

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development of an ‘integrated programmes enabling handicapped children to

study in regular schools.

Integrated Education of Disabled Children (IEDC-1974): The Government

of India’s appreciation of the need to integrate children with disabilities came in
1974, when the Union Ministry of Welfare launched the centrally sponsored
scheme of Integrated Education of Disabled Children (IEDC). In 1982, this
scheme was transferred over to Department of Education of the Ministry of
Human Resource Development. The centrally sponsored scheme of Integrated
Education of the Disabled Children provides educational opportunities for the
disabled children in common schools, to facilitate their retention in the school
system, and also to place in common schools, such children already placed in
special schools after they acquire the communication and the daily living skills
at the functional level.

National Policy on Education (NPE) – 1986: The policy gives emphasis on

the removal of disparities and equalize educational opportunities by attending to
the specific needs of those who have been denied equality. It stresses on
reducing dropout rates, improving learning achievements and expanding access
to students who have not had an easy opportunity to be a part of the general
system

Plan of Action (POA) – 1992: The NPE was followed by POA (1992). The
POA suggested a pragmatic principle for children with special needs. It
postulated that a child with disability who can be educated in a general school
should be educated in a general school only and not in a special school. Even
those children who are initially admitted to special schools for training in plus
curriculum skills should be transferred to general schools once they acquire
daily living skills, communication skills and basic academic skills.

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The POA was strengthened by the enactment of the Rehabilitation Council of

India Act RCI Act, 1992. In 1992, Parliament of India enacted the RCI Act,
subsequently amended in 2000, to establish a statutory mechanism for
monitoring and standardizing courses for the training of 16 categories of
professionals required in the field of special education and rehabilitation of
persons with disability.

Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights & Full

Participation) Act, 1995: Persons with Disabilities (Equal opportunities,
protection of rights & full participation) Act, 1995is a significant step for
ensuring equal opportunities for people with disabilities and their full
participation in the nation building. This act also stated that every child with
disability have right to free education in an appropriate environment till the age
of 18 years in integrated schools or special schools.

Another landmark legislation is the National Trust for the welfare of (Persons
with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disability)
Act–1999: passed by Indian Parliament. This Act seeks to protect and promote
the rights of persons who, within the disability sector, have been even more
marginalized than others. Though the National Trust Act of 1999 does not
directly deal with the education of children with special needs, one of its thrust
areas is to promote programmes, which foster inclusion and independence by
creating barrier free environment, developing functional skills of the disabled
and promoting self-help groups.

Project for Integrated Education for the Disabled (PIED): In 1987, to fulfil
the provisions for disabled children in the NPE (1986), the government
launched the Project for Integrated Education for the Disabled (PIED). It was a
joint venture of MHRD and UNICEF. It states ‘wherever feasible, the education

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of children with motor handicaps and other mild handicaps will be in common
with that of others’.

District Primary Education Programme (DPEP): The success of PIED led

to the inclusion of the component of Integrated Education of the Disabled (IED)
in DPEP, a scheme launched in 1994 by the Government of India for the
development of elementary education. At present, IED in DPEP is going on in
242 districts of 18 states. In these states, approximately 6.21 lakh children with
special needs have been enrolled in regular schools with adequate support
services.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA): SSA has been operational since 2000-01 in
partnership with state governments to achieve the goal of Universalization of
Elementary Education. This adopts a ZERO rejection policy under SSA, which
ensures that every child with special needs irrespective of the kind, category and
degree of disability, is provided meaningful and quality education. It covers
different components under education for children with disability ( i.e. Early
detection and identification, Functional and formal assessment, Education
placement, Aids and appliances, Support services, Teacher training, Resource
support, Individual Educational Plan (IEP), Parental training and community
mobilisation, Planning and management, Strengthening of special schools,
Removal of architectural barriers, Research, Monitoring and evaluation, Girls
with disability).

There after The National Action Plan for Inclusion in Education of Children
and Youth with Disabilities (IECYD)-2005 made by MHRD emphasizes the
inclusion of children and young person with disability in all general educational
settings from Early Childhood to Higher Education. The action plan ensure the
provision of available, accessible, affordable and appropriate learning

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environment for inclusion of children and youth with disabilities in all available
general education setting.

National Curriculum Framework-2005 recommends that a policy of inclusion

needs to be implemented in all schools and throughout educational system.
School need to become centres that prepare children for life and ensure that all
children especially the differently abled and children from marginalized section
get the maximum benefit of this critical area of education.

The RTE Act, 2009 : The 86th Amendment of the Constitution of India (2002)
introduced new Article 21A by making the right to education of children from 6
to 14 years of age a fundamental right. Article 51-A (K) was added to Part IV-
A of the Constitution as a fundamental duty of parents to provide opportunities
for education to their children aged between 6 and 14. The Right of Children to
Free and Compulsory Education (RCFCE) Act, 2009, commonly known at RTE
Act, 2009 was finally passed by the parliament on the 26th August, 2009
(notified on February 16, 2010 to come into effect from April 1, 2010). The
RTE Act tries to safeguard the rights of the children belonging to the
disadvantaged groups and the weaker sections, protect them from any kind of
discrimination and ensure their completion of elementary education. As per
Amendment in the RTE Act (2010), children with disabilities have been
included in the definition of child belonging to disadvantaged group in the
Section 2(d) of the RTE Act. The act also stated for admitting at least 25% of its
entry level class students from children belonging to weaker and disadvantaged
groups.

Challenges in the Way of Inclusive Education

Out dated curricular practices in teacher education institutions:

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Pedagogical Analysis of lessons aims at providing an overall vision of

transaction of a lesson for effective teaching learning in the class and
supposedly should equip a teacher with reflective practices of devising
strategies of addressing diversity in the classroom for inclusive education.
Chowdhury (2015) found that in West Bengal pedagogical analysis of lessons
has no effect on the teachers’ attitude to inclusion of children with special needs
while first-hand experience with such children emerges to be crucial. It is thus
important for the Government to revisit the curricular practices of teacher
education and remodel the pedagogical analysis in a way conducive to inclusive
settings.

Need for shaping in core educational values:

The coming together of EFA and inclusive education helps us to ask some
fundamental questions, such as ‘What is the role of education?’ Is the primary
task of education to develop a literate and numerate individual with
economically relevant attributes as put forward in the human capital approach
and in the educational policies of many governments across the globe? Or are
the ‘core educational values’ shaped by a range of other social and human
development outcomes of education that concentrate on the ‘enhancement of
human lives and freedoms’ as argued by Sen (1999).

Emphasis has shifted from ‘Access’, to ‘Completion’ :

Emphasis has shifted in EFA from the original focus of ‘access’, to more recent
concerns about quality and completion. However by focusing on individual
groupings, such as disabled children, rather than examining the system as a
whole, we run the risk of reinforcing existing dichotomies between access to
learning opportunities (quantity) and knowledge acquisition or competence
development (quality). It is only by examining these as central issues when

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undertaking radical reforms of education systems that we can respond to the

needs and concerns of a new global era.

Changes are required in education systems and in the values:

Radical changes are required in education systems, and in the values and
principles of the people involved in delivering education, if the world’s most
vulnerable and disadvantaged children are to gain access to their local school.
Singal (2004) has argued that inclusive education is not only about addressing
issues of input (for example, access), and those related to processes (for
example, teacher training), rather inclusion involves a shift in underlying values
and beliefs held across the system. As these values and beliefs are reflected in
the policies we frame (at the national, school and classroom level) and the
education systems that we build.

Disability a development issue:

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 10% of any population
are disabled (Thomas, 2005a). In addition, approximately 85% of the world's
children with disabilities under 15 live in developing countries . It is further
thought that with disability, or impairment, being both a cause and consequence
of poverty, the Millennium Development Goals cannot be achieved without a
specific disability focus. People with disabilities have health, nutritional,
educational and gender needs too, yet the goals related to these issues currently
ignore the often unique needs of people with disabilities within these goals. The
WHO estimates that up to 50% of disabilities are preventable, with 70% of
blindness and 50% of hearing impairment in children in developing countries
being preventable or treatable. Although this can be seen as more of a health
issue than a disability politics one, its link to healthcare, malnutrition and
poverty makes disability a development issue.

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Conclusion:
It is essential to note that inclusive education is not a parallel initiative to
EFA(Education For All) but to a principle of the movement. This is explained
in the annex of the Dakar Framework for Action which states, “The key
challenge is to ensure that the broad vision of ‘Education for All’ as an
inclusive concept is reflected in national government funding agency policies.
Education for All must take account of the need of the poor and the most
disadvantaged, including working children, remote rural dwellers and nomads,
and ethnic and linguistic minorities, children, young people and adults affected
by conflict, HIV/AIDS, hunger and poor health; and those with special learning
needs…” In order for EFA(Education For All) to be realised, children with
disabilities, which are among the most marginalized and at risk for inclusion,
must be ensured access to quality education. Addressing inclusion in a
comprehensive manner is a major challenge to the educational community. It
calls for a holistic approach which addresses the underlying causes of exclusion.
UNESCO’s role is to ensure that inclusion is adopted as a cross-cutting issue so
that the Education for All goals in fact do cover ALL learners.

Salamanca encourages us to look at educational difficulties in new ways. In

addition to challenging the labelling of schools, it also put the issue of diversity
at the core of the educational, cultural and social debate. This new direction in
thinking is based on the belief that changes in methodology and organisation –
made in response to pupils experiencing difficulties – can, under certain
conditions, benefit all children. This primarily explains the move from focusing
on children with disabilities to excluded children in general. In this way, pupils
who are currently categorised as having special needs come to be seen as a
stimulus for encouraging the development of richer learning environments.

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Inclusion in education is principally about respecting diversity in society and

reflecting it in the educational community.

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