Inclusive education (IE) is a new approach towards education of the children with disability and learning difficulties with that of normal one within the same roof. It seeks to address the learning needs of all children with a specific focus on those who are vulnerable to marginalization and exclusion. It implies all learners- with or without disabilities being able to learn together thorough access to common School provisions, schools and community educational setting with an appropriate network of support services. This is possible only in flexible education system that assimilates the needs of diverse range of learners and adapts itself to meet these needs. 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 Rules on Equalization of Opportunities for Person with Disability proclaiming Participation and equality for all.
AIM
- Create an opportunity for the students with disabilities to complete their Elementary & Secondary education in an inclusive and enabling environment.
- Provide educational opportunities and facilities to students with disabilities in the general education system at the Elementary & Secondary level
- Support the training of general school teacher to meet the needs of the children with disabilities at the Elementary & Secondary level
- Every child with disabilities will be identified at the Elementary & Secondary level and his educational need assessed.
Objectives
- For every student in need of aids & appliances, assistive device will be provided.
- All architectural barriers in the school are to be removed
- Each students with disability will be supplied with learning material as per their needs
- All general school teachers at the Elementary & Secondary level will be provided with basic training to teach students with various disabilities.
- Students with disabilities will have access to support service like the appointment of special educators, establishment of resource room in every block.
- Model schools are to be set up in every state to develop good replicable practices in inclusive education.
Target Group
The scheme will cover all children of age between 6-18 in Government local body and Government aided schools, with one or more disabilities as defined under "The Rights of Persons with Disabilities bill - 2016" namely:
- Blindness
- Low-vision
- Leprosy Cured persons
- Hearing Impairment (deaf and hard of hearing)
- Locomotor Disability
- Dwarfism
- Intellectual Disability
- Mental Illness
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Cerebral Palsy
- Muscular Dystrophy
- Chronic Neurological conditions
- Specific Learning Disabilities
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Speech and Language disability
- Thalassemia
- Hemophilia
- Sickle Cell disease
- Multiple Disabilities including deafblindness
- Acid Attack victim
- Parkinson's disease
Inclusive Education in Haryana:
For better implementation of inclusive education, in Haryana a joint action plan has been formulated where the schemes of inclusive education are jointly implemented for all the CWSN studying from class I to XII. The formulation of a joint action plan was done for better implementation of the intervention of IE under SSA and Inclusive Education for the Disabled at the Secondary Stage (IEDSS). This convergence is very helpful to best utilization of the available resources.