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In keeping with demands for a more inclusive system of education in India, the government promises to include disabled children in all its educational programmes
In a move to make the educational system more inclusive, the government has promised to include disabled children in all its educational programmes including the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).
India is one of the few countries in the world where 90% of disabled children do not receive any form of education, although there are a handful of schools in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi where inclusive education is being practised.
In these schools, innovative teaching techniques like theatre, music and group work have replaced traditional teaching techniques. "Each child is different. It's like in a classroom you have 40 different sets of children and not two sets. We don't have a problem dealing with them. The point is that you have to think of different methods of dealing with them. It's not like we are doing something impossible. It is very possible to do this," says Annie Koshi, principal of St Mary's School, New Delhi, where inclusive education is being successfully practised.
Thirteen-year-old Rohan Goel, who has Downs Syndrome, is among the 40 physically and mentally disabled students at St Mary's studying alongside other students. Rohan is like all the other children in his class. He studies the same subjects and appears for the same exams with the other children at the end of each term. "It's not like we feel different with them around. They are our friends and if they need help we help them," says Sahil, a student, about studying with disabled children.
A number of schools, however, remain unconvinced that inclusive education will work in the long run; they have different sections for disabled students. "It's a problem because these children need special care and we can't have them in the same class as other children," says Cynthia Manoharan, principal, St Thomas' School, New Delhi.
Although disability comes under the social empowerment ministry, those advocating the cause of inclusive education, or education for all, want it to be transferred to the human resources ministry that deals with education.
Meanwhile, 40 participants from 15 countries attended a six-day conference in New Delhi, recently, on inclusive education with a special focus on disabled children. The conference stressed that special schools did more harm than good to children with disabilities.
Mithu Alur, principal coordinator of an Indo-Canadian initiative, the National Resource Centre for Inclusion (NRCI), says: "Children need to be with other children. Sending them to a school for disabled will not help."
"We tend to think that these children will be bullied and given a bad time. But children are more sensitive to these things and disabled children need to mix with normal children," agrees educational consultant Vianne Timmons.
Source: www.ndtv.com, March 4, 2005
www.ndtv.com, March 3, 2005
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