Reflection on current status of inclusive education in India
Tanu Sharma
Research Scholar, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
Email id: tanusharma5284@yahoo.in
Contact number 9988022670
Abstract: All learners have a right to education regardless of their individual characteristics or difficulties. India being a developing country has limited resources and vast population. For quality education in India with limited resources, inclusion of all persons with individual differences under one roof is necessary as inclusive education is based on belief that the education is a basic human right. The present study discusses the status of disabled education, infrastructure and different policies regarding disables’ education in India. The paper adopts
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Ignorance, neglect, superstition and fear like social factors subjected people with disabilities to mental and/or physical pain as a means of exorcising the spirits. Disabilities were taken as an outcome of witchcraft, juju, sex-linked factors and supernatural forces. Change in attitude came after Emile, a book about the education of children by Rousseau (1712-1778). The main idea of teaching children in their own pace and abilities in book, set the ground for disables. Catholic Church started accepting those with disabilities as members of state. But, there was no provision for education. An era for special education started with work of many scholars like, Valentin Hauy, who opened a school for blind in Paris in 1784 and the incredible work of Louis Braille, Friedrich Moritz Hill (1805–74) who developed an oral method of instruction for teaching deaf. Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard (1775–1838) trained a child known as the Wild Boy of Aveyron. With the work of theorists like Edouard Seguin (1812–80) and Maria Montessori(1870-1952), Edouard O. Seguin (1812–1880), some seeds for special education were sprout. But a total change came with “Brown verses Board of Education of Topeka (1954)”, where United States’ Supreme Court declared that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students are unconstitutional. This decision referred to racial segregation began to influence people’s thinking about disables. The 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ensured teaching for students with special needs in the least restrictive environment of general classroom with general education curricula, assessment practices and classrooms where special and general education teachers together work for the