Do you think children with special needs should be a part of regular school or study in a separate school?
Education is a powerful instrument of social change and often initiates upward movement in the social structure thereby, helping to bridge the gap between the different sections of society. The educational scene in the country has undergone major change over the years, resulting in better provision of education and better educational practices.
In 1944, the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) published a Comprehensive report called the Sergeant Report on the post-war educational development of the country. As per the report, provisions for the education of the handicapped were to form an essential part of the national system of education, which was to be administered by the Education Department. According to this report, handicapped children were to be sent to special schools only when the nature and extent of their defects made this necessary. The Kothari Commission (1964–66), the first education commission of independent India, observed: “the education of the handicapped children should be an inseparable part of the education system.” The commission recommended experimentation with integrated programmes in order to bring as many children as possible into these programmes.
Until the 1970s, the policy encouraged segregation. Most educators believed that children with physical, sensory, or intellectual disabilities were so different that they could not participate in the activities of a common school (Advani, 2002).
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Christian missionaries, in the 1880s, started schools for the disabled as charitable undertakings (Mehta, 1982).
The first school for the blind was established in 1887. An institute for the deaf and mute (dumb) was set up in 1888. Services for the physically disabled were also initiated in the middle of the twentieth century. Individuals with mental retardation were the last to receive attention. The first school for the mentally challenged was being established in 1934 (Mishra, 2000).
special education programmes in earlier times were, therefore, heavily dependent on voluntary initiative.
The benefits of inclusion for students with SEN (Special Educational Needs) are as follows:
• Spending the school day alongside classmates who do not have disabilities provides many opportunities for social interaction that would not be available in segregated settings.
• Children with SEN have appropriate models of behaviour. They can observe and imitate the socially acceptable behaviour of the students without SEN.
• Teachers often develop higher standards of performance for students with SEN.
• Both general and special educators in inclusive settings expect appropriate conduct from all students.
• Students with SEN are taught age-appropriate, functional components of academic content, which may never be part of the curriculum in segregated settings (for example, the sciences, social studies, etc.).
• Attending inclusive schools increases the probability that students with SEN will
Continue to participate in a variety of integrated settings throughout their lives (Ryndak and Alper, 1996).
The benefits of inclusion for students without SEN are as follows:
• Students without SEN have a variety of opportunities for interacting with peers of their own age who experience SEN, in inclusive school settings.
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• They may serve as peer tutors during instructional activities.
• They may play the role of a special “buddy” for the children with SEN during lunch, in the bus, or on the playground.
• Children without SEN can learn a good deal about tolerance, individual difference, and human exceptionality by interacting with those with SEN.
• Children without SEN can learn that students with SEN have many positive characteristics and abilities.
• Children without SEN have the chance to learn about many of the human service professions, such as, special education, speech therapy, physical therapy, recreational therapy, and vocational rehabilitation. For some, exposure to these areas may lead their making a career in any of these areas later on.
• Inclusion offers the opportunity for students without SEN to learn to communicate, and deal effectively with a wide range of individuals. This also prepares them to participate in a pluralistic society(Pluralism-(noun)A condition in which numerous distinct ethnic, religious, or cultural groups are present and tolerated within a society) when they are adults (Ryndak and Alper, 1996).For years the education system has provided special education and related services to students with SEN and systematically developed a dual service delivery system comprising different settings, different curricula, different services, and different service providers for students with and without SEN. But now in the context of the struggle to affirm and guarantee the rights of the disabled, the ethics of the dual system are being questioned. The common system, which would bring “all” onto a common platform, is being thought of as a better option.
