Inclusive Education: Integrating Special Needs Children within Mainstream Schools

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I have been asked this question many times. Sometimes by people who were

well meaning and a lot of times by those who were not. People have asked

me this under the guise of concern and curiosity but I was always able to

gauge what they really wanted to know. My fellow teachers in my school were

extremely unhappy when the ‘Right to Education’ made it mandatory for them

to have children with special needs in their classrooms. They used to complain

about the extra burden, lack of facilities and infrastructure and for not being

trained to handle children with special needs. I used to tell them to forget

about all that and just accept. Acceptance paves the way for a lot of problems

and solutions can be found within its realm. It was not just fellow teachers;

there were parents too who thought having special needs children in the class

would affect their children’s behaviour and ‘these’ kids should go and study in

special schools.

One of the common misconceptions was and still is that children with special

needs are not educable and it is a time wasting exercise to put effort into

teaching them. I believe this is a very dangerous thought for teachers to

have, because if you are not convinced yourself, then the chances are you’d

never be able to fully support the inclusion.

Now back to the question, why do parents want to put their special needs

children into mainstream schools? The answer is not one dimensional and

frankly, many special needs parents have not had the best experience with

inclusion. Many of them home-school their children based on their unpleasant

experiences with the school system but other optimistic parents still send or

want to send their kids to school. Let me be clear, academics is the last thing

we have in our mind. So what makes this decision for us?

It is our RIGHT: Yes, the children with special needs are as much a part of

the society as other children are. It is their right to be treated in the same

way. Just like all the children going to the school are not alike and have varied

abilities and skills, the same applies to our little special brigade as well. They

all come with their own skills, strengths and challenges and it is their right to

get the same treatment that their ‘neuro-typical’ counterparts do.

Research suggests it is for the best: Inclusion is a natural extension of the

philosophy that embraces diversity and celebrates individual differences. The

advantages of inclusion in the classroom by mixing in students with special

needs, regardless of the severity of a student’s disability or socio-economic

status, have been well documented, whereas special needs kids who remain

in segregated classes fall academically and socially further behind. One area in

which children who enjoy inclusive education show long-term benefits is in

their social-emotional development. The bottom line is that “regular, sustained

interaction” in inclusive classrooms offers children with disabilities

opportunities to observe, develop, expand, and generalize their social skills

(Strain, McGee, & Kohler, 2001, p. 357). One research study concluded that

children with social and communication delays show “marked developmental

progress on intellectual and language measures” in comparison to their

counterparts segregated from typically developing peers (Strain & Bovey,

2011,p. 134).

We parents want it: In an ideal world where educators would be well trained

and accepting, resources would be plenty and nobody would treat our

children differently; no parent would home school or send the children to so

called special schools. But even in this less than ideal world I want my child to

be a part of the society she has to live in all her life and to equip her to deal

with the challenges rather than keeping her in a cocoon. My daughter, who

has Down’s Syndrome, goes to a mainstream school with her brother and I

can’t begin to describe the feeling when I wave them both goodbye in the

morning. I have always wanted them to feel equal and get equal

opportunities, and inclusion seems a good way for doing that!

It helps ‘typical’ children: There is strong evidence of the positive effects of

inclusive education on students who do not have disabilities. “Both research

and anecdotal data have shown that typical learners have demonstrated a

greater acceptance and valuing of individual differences, enhanced self-

esteem, a genuine capacity for friendship, and the acquisition of new skills,”

according to Long-Term Effects of Inclusion, from the ERIC Clearing House on

Disabilities and Gifted Education.

“Inclusion improves learning for both typical and special need students. When

youngsters who have learning problems are included, students without

disabilities often do better academically. A teacher is more apt to break

instruction into finer parts or repeat directions if he or she has a youngster in

the room who deals with deafness, blindness, or a developmental disability.

Also when children are exposed to inclusion at an early age and consistently

throughout their lives, they are more likely to approach children with

disabilities with acceptance (Rafferty et al., 2001) and are less likely to view a

disability as an impairment.” – Education World, ‘Special Education Inclusion’

It is the law: Yes, it is the law and not abiding by it is an offense. It is

important for everybody to know that the RTE (Right to Education) Act was

passed in 2009 and it is against the law to discriminate against special needs

children and deny them admission. It is the responsibility of the schools to

hire special educators and have the necessary infrastructure for the inclusion.

It is true that many schools still don’t care, but some do.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network says, “How children are treated in schools

often mirrors how they will be treated in later life…A society that separates its

children [during their school years] is likely to maintain those separations

indefinitely, reinforcing attitudinal barriers to disability in all aspects of life.”

Inclusion is still a dream for many parents. We look forward to the day when

it will not be a struggle or a fight to put our children into a mainstream

school. The day when a child will be treated with respect, dignity and care

irrespective of his disability and when the school, parents and the teachers

would promise to do the same – that is when the true inclusion takes place.

Sources:

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr320.shtml#sthash.Pr2sne7M.dpuf

http://archive.brookespublishing.com/documents/gupta-how-children-benefit-

from-inclusion.pdf

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