Networking, A Key Factor for Managing Inclusive Education

 

Mrs. Minati Rani Mohapatra

 

Assistant Professor in Special Education (Visual Impairment), Department of Disability Studies, Rabindra Bharati University, 56A, B. T. Road, Kolkata – 700050, West Bengal, India

 

ABSTRACT:

The term ‘inclusion’ replaces two important terms used in earlier decades named as ‘Integration’ and ‘Mainstreaming’. It has triggered many emotions across school communities and classrooms, and among teachers, students, parents and various other stakeholders. Networking involves all stakeholders in inclusion. Networking is partnership for effective inclusion. Networking between these parsons and agencies is discussed in the present study. Stakeholders of inclusive education are: Parents, Community, Peers, General Education Teacher, School Educational Personnel, State and Central Government authorities including Ministries, and RCI. Involving parents and the community is an important principle of quality, both in and out of the classroom. It is even more relevant in the case of inclusive education, which is much broader than formal education and should not only take place within the four walls of the classroom. Parent’s collaboration not only of benefit of the children: there are also possible gains for all parties.  Schools, by involving parents and the community tend to establish better reputations in the community. However, the recognition that family engagement in education benefits children does not make clear how the involvement become the positive force. The first step for families to become involved in a collaborative way with schools is to promote a social and educational atmosphere where parents and partners feel welcomed, respected, trusted, heard and needed.

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

The ‘United States of America’ initiated a practice to teach all special children irrespective of their type and degree of impairment by implementing an act in 1970. The act was modified on 1990 and named as ‘The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’. Later, it became popular as IDEA. IDEA was again amended in 1997 and renamed as ‘The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act’. IDEA spells out   broad mandates for services to children with disabilities of all kinds (Friend, 2011 and Gargiulo, 2009). It strictly prescribed the Individualized Education Programme (IEP) and the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) for disabled children. During mid of 20^th century, the mainstreaming revolution started in America. The research literature that relates most specifically to the mainstreaming movement deals with the mentally retarded children. The aim of the movement was to mainstream special children in general school.  In Indian educational settings, ‘mainstreaming’ was the result of ‘mainstreaming movement’ in America. It refers to an educational placement procedure and process in which disabled children are educated in the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) to achieve their academic goals and to perform other related activities. LRE is nothing but a setting that is as similar as possible to a classroom in which non-disabled sighted children are educated. This provision of IDEA has given a legal basis to educate differently abled children with their non-disabled sighted peers in a regular classroom. The Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a document that is developed for each individual student, who needs special education. The IEP is created through a team effort and reviewed periodically. The Integrated Education is the educational programme in which exceptional children attended classes with their non-disabled sighted peer group either a part time or full time basis. It is a placement of disabled children in normal schools with some specialized educational help and services. In this programme regular schools are equipped with special teacher’s assistance for disabled children.

 

The new concept ‘Inclusion’ has replaced the two older concepts – ‘Integration’ and ‘Mainstreaming’ that were strong enough in the earlier years. According to Section - 2(m) of the Rights of Persons with Disability (RPWD) Act - 2016, “Inclusive Education” means a system of education wherein students with and without disability learn together and the system of the teaching and learning is suitably adapted to meet the learning needs of different types of students with disabilities. Inclusive education is a process intended to respond to student’s diversity by increasing their participation and reducing exclusion within and from Education. Real inclusion implies learning at the highest level and developing the potential of each child. With support from family and community, every child reaches at his/her full potential and develops the skills necessary for being a successful and active member of a democratic knowledge society. The aim of the inclusion is to address all educational needs of all children including those with disabilities. Inclusion is about the child rights to education and to participate with other non-disabled sighted peers in all the spheres of the schools activities. As the result of the programme, presently majority of the disabled children are enrolling in the inclusive education programme and they are expected to develop their competency skills on par with their non-disabled sighted peers.

 

Inclusion spells out clearly about ‘Barrier Free Infrastructure’, ‘National Level Policies’, ‘Capacity Building’, ‘Legislation Reforms’, ‘Understanding about disabilities and the respective requirements’, ‘Sensitization’, ‘Initiative’, ‘Organisations’, and ‘Networking to coordinate at all levels from parents up to central Governments’. Networking is a key factor in inclusive programme. It includes Parents of special children, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), State Governments, and Central Government. We shall discuss about the role of ‘Networking’ in inclusive education.

 

STAKEHOLDERS IN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION:

It is central Government policy to provide free education to children which is considered as their birth right as per RTE Act. Both the central as well as state governments taking necessary steps to implement the inclusive education approach in all schools. But the greatest barriers to inclusion are caused by the society. Some sections of the society still ignore the disabled children and arguing that educating the disabled is pointless. Besides, many physical barriers are there for which special children are struggling to perform academic activities in their day-to-day life. This is nothing but the lack of awareness.  Various stakeholders are there to help special students to overcome all these barriers. Networking involves all stakeholders in inclusion. Networking is partnership for effective inclusion. Networking between these parsons and agencies is discussed in the present study. Stakeholders of inclusive education are: ‘Parents’, ‘Community’, ‘Peers, ‘General Education Teacher’, ‘School Administration’, ‘NGOs’ , ‘State Government authorities’, ‘Central  Government and RCI including Ministries’.

 

1.    Family Involvement:

The activities of the learning centers are not sufficient for the children. The effective and efficient delivery of education to special children is not possible without the involvement of family especially parents. So the learning centers necessarily are to keep regular contact with the family of the children for their proper development and also to acquire better understanding of families.  Special children should not be avoided and must be contacted in normal manner as if they can not feel isolation from any member of the family. The family as the source of love and support must deal with the negative attitude towards disability. Parent must increase interaction with their children. The family also should act as the teacher of the disabled and they should take the responsibility of early identification and proper intervention to address the disabilities of their special children.  

 

2.    Community Involvement:

Engaging parents and the community is not a new concept. Communities play a major role to make success of the inclusion programme. They must be aware of this scheme and motivate special children to go for school. They must be involved in this process instead of showing negative attitudes towards special children. The community must adapt the concept of inclusive education and should make available to their special children. Without the community involvement the total programme will be baseless. The community must conduct awareness programmes in this regard.

 

3.    Peers Involvement:

Non-disabled sighted peers play a major role for differently abled children within the inclusive classroom. By this, special children can interact and properly communicate with their non-disabled sighted peer group and it may help in removing inferiority complex from their mind and developing friendly attitude among them. Peers must respect to all of their classmates irrespective of their physical status.

 

4.    Teachers Involvement:

Attitude of teachers must be positive towards special children’s education. Proper training is required to make teachers eligible to handle normal as well as disabled children in the regular classroom. Teachers must be supported with proper teaching learning materials. He must have knowledge to identify the deficiency in children and to address them in appropriate manner. The teacher should have knowledge in Braille, Sign Language and other supportive services to help these special children in classroom since communication plays an important role during teaching. 

 

5.    Teacher Education:

Teacher’s trainee should be trained to handle special children using innovative practice. They must be trained for student centered teaching and also learn to prepare individualized package for the needy students. There must be flexible curriculum. Teacher’s trainee must be given training for early identification and assessment of special children. Inclusion and inclusive education do not look at whether children are able to follow the regular education programme, but looks at teachers and schools that can adapt educational programmes to individual needs for which proper training and expertise is required from teacher.

 

6.    Involvement of School Administrations:

The Head of the school are expected to play a vital role in the success of inclusive education. He sets the tone of the institution and provides the socio-emotional environment for education of special students. Therefore, the school administration is the key to mobilize and establish link with other agencies. He is to sensitize general teachers to prepare them for the extended role to educate special children along with their non-disabled sighted peers. The headmaster should take initiative to recruit special education faculties and staffs as if both disabled and their non-disabled sighted peers will be benefited from inclusion. He should make avail assistive devices and barrier free infrastructure for CWSN students. Family and community involvement in school governance and management decision making process also leads to a good sign for the inclusion.

 

7.    Non-Government Organisations:

Government lunches partnership with different organizations to promote inclusive development focusing children with disabilities. The partners include UN agencies, international and local NGOs, civil society organizations, academia and private sectors. In some cases, private, co-operative schools and other educational institutions also involved to provide day care and education to special children. NGOs can support parents and children with Information on their legal rights, Information on what services are available and how to access them, Information on where and how decisions affecting their education are made, and how to advocate, lobby and influence local and national agendas, and other support services.

 

8.    Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI):

RCI was set up as a registered society in 1986.On September, 1992 the RCI Act was enacted by Parliament and it became a Statutory Body on 22 June 1993.The Act was amended by Parliament in 2000 to make it more broad based .The mandate given to RCI is to regulate and monitor services given to persons with disability, to standardise syllabi and to maintain a Central Rehabilitation Register of all qualified professionals and personnel working in the field of Rehabilitation and Special Education. The Act also prescribes punitive action against unqualified persons delivering services to persons with disability. It also recognize institutions/organizations/ universities running master’s degree/ bachelor’s degree/ P.G. Diploma/Diploma/ Certificate courses in the field of rehabilitation of the persons with disabilities. The objective of the RCI is to promote research in Rehabilitation and Special Education.  It encourages continuing education in the field of rehabilitation and special education by way of collaboration with organizations working in the field of disabilities.

 

9.    State Governments including Ministries:

State Governments are working at the root level of the society. The state governments are taking initiatives for inclusion. It is found that, civil society organizations, academicians, research fellow, activists, and policy makers are participating at state level activities for inclusion. The Department of Education is regularly interacting with different stakeholders for smooth operation. In this arena we can say for effective result of the scheme, the policy maker must understand the concept and benefits of inclusive education. Therefore, the state government should define a set of inclusive principle to achieve inclusion. It may also work in private-public-participation mode. State government can promote the inclusive education by communicating in the form of BRCC level training programme, district level seminars and work shops can be conducted. Chief functionaries and various staffs of participating stakeholders must be called for their awareness about inclusion. It is found that, state governments are distributing resource material to special students to make them able to compete with their non-disabled peers. Education is the birth right of all children irrespective of their degree of disability. The first step to fulfill the above right, the central and state government has taken initiatives to give every child to take admission at any school in their localities. Both the central and state government legalized the inclusion. Both the governments implemented very strong policies to implement this inclusive education.

 

10. Government of India and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment:

In the year 1985-86, the erstwhile Ministry of Welfare was bifurcated into the Department of Women and Child Development and the Department of Welfare. Subsequently, the name of the Ministry was changed to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in May, 1998. Further, in October, 1999. Though the subject of "Disability" figures in the State List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, The Government of India has always been proactive in the disability sector. It is not only running seven National Institutes (NIs) dealing with various types on disabilities and seven Composite Regional Centers (CRCs), which provide rehabilitation services to PwDs and run courses for rehabilitation professional but also funds a large number of NGOs for similar services and also a National Handicapped Finance and Development Corporation (NHFDC) which provides loans at concession rates of interest to PwDs for self-employment. Besides, the Union Government is a party to (i) Proclamation on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asian and the Pacific Region - adopted at Beijing in December, 1992, and (ii) The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which came into effect in May, 2008.

 

The subject has received attention in various States Governments in varying degrees. At the Central level also disability being one of the several responsibilities of the M/o SJandE, and being looked after by just one bureau, has resulted in inadequate attention, as most of its time and energy is spent only on implementing Ministry's own schemes, meeting their expenditure and physical targets, and organize annual time-bound activities like the National Awards for empowerment of PwDs. In the above background, it was stated in the 11th Five Year Plan that "The 'Disability Division' of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment will be strengthened by converting it into a separate Department, so that it can liaise effectively with all the other concerned Ministries/Departments and fulfill its responsibilities towards the disabled". Looking to the specialize nature of the subject on "Disability", the wide ranging work to be done in the light of the UNCRPT, and the inadequacy of existing implementation structure, the time has now come to upgrade the existing Disability Bureau in the M/o SJandE. The decision to create a separate Department of Disability Affairs within the M/o SJandE was taken up by the Government, in principle on 3rd January, 2012. This was also announced by the President before both houses of Parliament on 12th March, 2012.

 

CONCLUSION:

Networking is an important factor for effective inclusion. Network involves all stakeholders in inclusion and networking is their partnership for effective result. Communication plays a major role in networking since communication among these stakeholders is most important to know each other to get best results from the scheme. Central and State government are equally responsible for upliftment of all differently-abled persons and they also play a major role in inclusion. Inclusion is nothing but an initiative in the process of mainstreaming this section of the contemporary society.

 

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Received on 22.11.2018       Modified on 07.12.2018

Accepted on 21.12.2018      © A&V Publication all right reserved