Inclusive education: A boon for children with special needs

Pages: 362-365
Deepika Vig and Jaskeerat Kaur (Department of Human Development, Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana)

India has earned a notorious global reputation for hypocritical piety and institutionalised neglect of the poor and disadvantaged. It has been estimated that 90 percent of India’s estimated 40 million children aged 4-16 years with physical and mental disabilities are out of school and majority of them are out of schools not out of choice but because callous school managements and over-anxious parents of abled children in a travesty of humanity and social justice have consistently discouraged them from entering the nation’s classrooms. Education is a fundamental human right of every child. Governments across the globe are deliberating on workable policies and practices to make education for all a reality within 2015. It is also an attempt to provide an opportunity for improving human capabilities of all children. It’s time that government agencies as well as mainstream institutions woke up to the reality that segregation of children is morally unjustifiable and a violation of human rights. Special schools are dead-ends for special needs children. They promote isolation, alienation and social exclusion. It is this dominant attitude of exclusion which needs to be changed to build harmonious and compassionate societies. The inclusion of disabled children into main-stream schools will inevitably result in their acceptance into society and also within their own families many of whom still hide away children with disabilities. If all children grow up together there is less likelihood of resistance towards and ostracism of the disabled.