Written By: Adhya Tomar, First Year Student, National Law Institute University, Bhopal

Introduction

The recently passed New Education Policy cleared the decades old confusion regarding the definition of  inclusive education by adopting the definition provided by Rights of Persons with Disability Act 2016, according to which inclusive education means as a system of education where children with and without disabilities study together and the system of teaching and learning is suitably adapted to meet the learning needs of different types of students with disabilities. However, Indian education system has had a history of confusion between integration and inclusion and the it continues to use these terms interchangeably.  This confusion seems inconsequential. However, it’s effects can be seen in the incompetence of Indian education with respect to providing equal learning opportunities to people with disabilities.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines disability as “long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder a person’s full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”. This definition not only includes physical disabilities but also encompasses discussions around neurodiversity which describes a variety of conditions related to cognitive abilities.

Adopting the term inclusion or using integration interchangeably with inclusion without recognizing key differences between these two approaches continues to force children with disabilities to adjust in the existing system rather than changing the rigid practices followed in the system which currently only serve able-bodied, privileged children who come from urban areas. This is not just an issue of word choice but indicates a broader incoherence around disability-inclusion within the Indian educational system.

So while on paper we have adopted an inclusionary system of education according to RPWD Act 2016, we won’t be able to implement it on ground level unless some fundamental changes are made in the current education system.

Inclusive education means providing real learning opportunities to those groups who have traditionally been excluded from mainstream education. It aims to meet the learning requirements of all children, with a special emphasis on those who are at risk of marginalisation. It also aims to provide all the students with or without disabilities the same level of education by providing access to common pre-schools, schools and community educational centres with other support services for children with disabilities. This is possible only in flexible education system that assimilates the needs of diverse range of learners and adapts itself to meet these needs. Inclusion is not an experiment to be tested but a value to be followed. All the children whether they are disabled or not have the right to education as they are the future citizens of the country.

 However, the current educational system is grossly incompetent with respect to the needs of these children. It fails to even provide access to mainstream schools to these children. According to the 2019 “State of the Education Report for India: Children with Disabilities” that took into account the 2011 census, there are 78,64,636 children with disability in India constituting 1.7 percent of the total child population. Among these, 75% don’t attend schools.

The principle of inclusive education was adopted at the “World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access and Quality” (Salamanca, Spain 1994) and was restated at the World Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal 2000). The idea of inclusion is further supported by the United Nation’s Standard on Equalization of Opportunities for Person with Disability Proclaiming Participation and equality for all.

It has been more than a decade since the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) was enacted to enforce the fundamental right to education for children between six and fourteen years of age. One of its aims is to provide the same quality of education to children with disabilities as other children. It also makes provisions for home based education for children who suffer with severe or multiple disabilities. Since then, India’s disability rights framework has also evolved to enforce obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. With the passage of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPWD Act), inclusive education got statutory backing in India.

However, there is a stark difference between ground realties and legislation with respect to inclusive education.  According to a 2017 Cambridge report titled– Inclusive Quality Education for Children With Disabilities, although there has been an increase in the numbero. of students enrolled in primary schools they are most likely to drop out before completing five years of primary schooling and are least likely to transition to secondary school or higher education. The report also highlights the reasons why most children with disabilities tend to not finish their schooling. According to it, there is a lack of these factors essential to achieve inclusive education in India — training of mainstream teachers, special educators, the use of cost-effective teaching aids and adaptations to the school infrastructure, and supporting children with disabilities in mainstream school. The report states that “Evidence from the field notes low levels of confidence and lack of clarity among mainstream teachers in relation to teaching children with disabilities. While teachers don’t necessarily have negative attitudes, poor infrastructure, large class sizes, lack of para-professional staff, lack of competence, and academic achievement are challenges experienced by them toward inclusion of children with disabilities.”

To understand further, the kind of exclusionary practices involved in mainstream schooling an example of neurodiversity is used.

One of the prime examples non inclusivity of Indian schools can be seen in its treatment of neurodivergent students. Neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) affect increasingly large numbers of students.  Individuals with conditions such as autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often struggle with soft skills, especially ones that apply to social interactions.

The rigid system of Indian schooling makes it much more difficult for kids with neurological disorders to get quality education. Practices such as forcing kids to answer in class, down marking them for not following rigid deadlines, using words like ‘dumb’ or ‘lazy’ for children who take more time to understand can be really damaging for autistic kids or kids with ADHD as concentration, following a fixed schedule and social interaction are some of the things that these children regularly struggle with. Another practice of awarding kids with full attendance is something which normalizes the idea  that individuals should strive to be productive all the time and prioritize work over one’s health.

 These are only a few examples of the many ways in which schools have ingrained ableism. This makes our education system gravely outdated and exclusionary. It has become a system which reinforces and perpetuates the very inequalities that we want to remove.

Conclusion

The concept of inclusionary education in India was first properly defined in the RTE Act of 2009. Since then it has numerous approaches and policies have interpreted this concept differently. With the new education policy 2021 it is clear that the concept aims to bring disabled children on par with other children in terms of education by admitting them to mainstream education. However, this concept would require a 360-degree transformation in the current education system. The way mainstream schooling is operated in current times, it can not integrate disabled kids without forcing them to adapt to the incompetent system.

There is a need to go further, to recognize disability as an identity and as a form of diversity rather than solely a deficit. The educational institutes need to realise that it is because of their rigid approach towards teaching, lack of proper infrastructure, absence of curriculum that caters to everyone and lack of proper training to the teachers is the reason why these children are not able to get quality education and not because of their disability.