Inclusive Education BY Dr. Sankar Prasad Mohanty Associate Professor of Education Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar

1. Inclusive Education: Historical
Development, Policies and Practices
Dr. Sankar Prasad Mohanty
Associate Professor of Education
Rama Devi Women’s University, Bhubaneswar
Email: spmohanty75@yahoo.com

2. • Inclusion has been defined as the acceptance
of all pupils within the mainstream education
system, taught within a common framework,
and identified as the responsibility of all
teachers (Thomas, 1997).
• It is a means to realize the right to high quality
education without discrimination and with
respect and dignity.

3. Gender is a crucial factor:
• Girls are less likely than boys to receive care and food
and are more likely to be left out of family
interactions and activities.
• Girls and young women with disabilities are ‘doubly
disabled’. (WHO, 2013)
• Girls with disabilities are less likely to get an
education, receive vocational training or find
employment than are boys with disabilities or girls
without disabilities. (Groce, 2004)

4. • Effective means are available to build inclusive
societies in which children with and without
disabilities can enjoy their rights equally.
• Physical, attitudinal and political barriers are
being dismantled

5. A philosophy, not a programme
• Inclusive Education is a philosophy.
• It is not a program, nor does it happen in isolation.
• It can't happen in one classroom and not the other.
• The successful inclusion of special needs students
requires the shared value system, resources and
collaboration of the state/province, school district, home,
school and classroom.
• For example, we talk about co-teaching, differentiated
learning, home-school communication, and IEPs. It is easy
for people who are familiar with inclusion to know how all
these pieces fit together to form an inclusive
environment. However, for others, it still a mystery...a
puzzle. How can a teacher with 30 students differentiate
learning? Who is a co-teacher? Why does the entire
school need to support inclusion?

6. • Inclusive Education as a movement started
since 1994 Salamanca statement by ninety-
two governments and twenty-five
international organizations in the ‘World
Conference on Special Needs Education:
Access and Quality’, organized by UNESCO in
Salamanca, Spain.
• The conference officially adopted, for the first
time, inclusive education as the most effective
means of securing education for all (UNESCO
1994).

7. The Salamanca statement proclaims that:
• Every student has a fundamental right to education
• must be given the opportunity to achieve and
maintain an acceptable level of learning,
• Every student has unique characteristics, interests,
abilities and learning needs
• education systems should be designed and
educational programme implemented to take into
account the wide diversity of these characteristics and
needs

8. • Students with special educational needs must have
access to regular schools which should accommodate
them within a student centered pedagogy capable of
meeting their needs
• Regular schools with this inclusive orientation are the
most effective means of combating discriminatory
attitudes, creating welcoming communities, building
an inclusive society and achieving education for all;
• Provide an effective education to the majority of
students and improve the efficiency and ultimately
the cost-effectiveness of the entire education.

9. Integration Inclusion
No change in the existing
mainstream environment
Changing the existing mainstream
environment (physical factors,
curricular aspects, teaching
expectation)
Learning problems are
considered as defect in
the student
Learning problems are considered
to be due to inappropriate student
environment interactions and not
because of shortcomings in the
student
Environment do not match
with diversities found
amongst students
Environment recognize different
needs and abilities

10. Integration Inclusion
Intervention :
correcting and remediation
for sensory defects.
Intervention:
differentiated teaching methods,
flexible curriculum
Supplementary materials
Emphasis upon enabling
the student to fit in the
society
Emphasis upon enabling the school
to understand and respond to each
student’s requirements
Julka, A. (2003)

12. • Not an add-on to a conventional school
• Intrinsic to the mission, philosophy, values, practices
and activities of the school
• Inclusion in education is an approach to educating
students with special educational needs.
• Students with special needs spend most or all of
their time with non-disabled students.

14. Social Integration:
• a dynamic and principled process of promoting the
values, relations and institutions that enable all
people to participate in social, economic, cultural
and political life on the basis of equality of rights,
equity and dignity.
• promotion and protection of all human rights, value
of dignity of each individual, diversity, pluralism,
tolerance, non-discrimination, non-violence, equality
of opportunity, solidarity, security, and participation
of all people, including disadvantaged and vulnerable
groups and persons.

15. Social Inclusion
• as a process by which efforts are made to ensure
equal opportunities for all, regardless of their
background, so that they can achieve their full
potential in life.
• enable full and active participation of every member
of the society in all aspects of life, including civic,
social, economic, educational and political activities

16. Social Exclusion
• individuals or groups are wholly or partially excluded
from fully participating in all aspects of life of the
society, in which they live, on the grounds of their
social identities, such as age, gender, race, ethnicity,
culture or language, and/or physical, economic,
social disadvantages. Social exclusion may mean the
lack of voice, lack of recognition, or lack of capacity
for active participation.
• exclusion from decent work, assets, land,
opportunities, access to social services and/or
political representation

17. Social Cohesion
• refers to the elements that bring and hold people
together in society. In a socially cohesive society all
individuals and groups have a sense of belonging,
participation, inclusion, recognition and legitimacy
(Legal).
• Social cohesive societies are not necessarily
demographically homogenous. Rather, by respecting
diversity, they connect the potentials residing in their
societal diversity (in terms of ideas, opinions, skills,
etc.). Therefore, they are less prone to slip into
destructive patterns of tension and conflict when
different interests collide (Crash)

18. Social Participation
• as the act of engaging in society's activities. It
refers to the possibility to influence decisions
and have access to decision-making processes.
Social participation creates mutual trust
among individuals, which forms the basis for
shared responsibilities towards the
community and society.

19. Historical developments of special and inclusive
education for students with disabilities in India
• Initiated late 1800s
• Special schools for the Deaf in Bombay in 1883
• Schools for the Blind in Amritsar in 1887
• The tradition of special schools was initiated in India
and till the 1970s, this was the dominant mode of
service delivery for Children with Special Needs (CSN)

20. Inclusive Education: Policies and Practices
Constitution of India: Policies
• Article 45: Free and compulsory education for all
children up to 14 years , replaced with ECCE 0-6 years.
• Article 21 A: Right to Education Act, 2009-
Fundamental right of all children aged 6-14 to get
equitable, free and quality education.
• Article 14: The State shall not deny to any person
equality before the law or the equal protection of the
laws within the territory of India

21. • Article 15 (2): No citizen shall, on grounds only of
religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of
them, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction
or condition.
• Article 15(4): Empowers the State to make special
provisions for the advancement of any socially and
educationally backward classes or for SCs.
• Article 17: The Constitution of India states
categorically that untouchability is abolished and its
practice in any form is forbidden

22. The first education commission in India (Kothari
Commission, 1964–66) addressed issues of
access and participation by all.
• It stressed a common school system open to all
children irrespective of caste, creed, community,
religion, economic condition and social status.
• In 1968, the National Education Policy followed
the commission’s recommendations and
suggested the expansion of educational facilities
for physically and mentally handicapped children,
and the development of an ‘integrated
programme’ enabling handicapped children to
study in regular schools

23. • National Policy on Education (1986) brought the
fundamental issue of equality for CSN to the forefront.
Stressed the ‘removal of disparities’ in education
“objective should be to integrate physically and
mentally disabled people with the general community
as equal partners, to prepare them for normal growth
and to enable them to face life with courage and
confidence”.
• The POA ambitiously committed to universal
enrolment by 2000 for both children with and without
disabilities. It also strengthened the NPE by
demanding that CSN be educated only in regularly
schools and not in special schools as had been allowed
earlier.

24. • The NPE 1986, which was predated by the National
Education Policy of 1968.
• The NEP contained the essentials of an integrated
schooling system for children with and without
disabilities, it did not get translated into a detailed
set of strategies for implementation.
• NEP followed the recommendations of India’s first
education commission (Kothari Commission in 1966)
• Kothari Commission: Expansion of education facilities
for physically and mentally handicapped children and
also the development of integrated programs
enabling children with disabilities to study in general
schools.

25. • In 1974, the Ministry of Welfare, now Social Justice
and Empowerment, implemented the Integrated
Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) scheme
• That broke new ground by stressing the need for
educating children with mild to moderate disabilities
in regular school settings However, the tensions
between the role of special and general schools for
CSN continues today, even after the widespread
recognition that inclusion is seen as a more effective
educational and social strategy in most cases

26. • IEDC was apparently intended to encourage co-
operation between mainstream and special schools
in order to support integration, but co-operation did
not happen (Julka,2005)
• The programme is seen as an overall failure by those
outside the government (Singal,2005b)

27. • Project on Integrated Education for Disabled
(PIED)
In 1987, UNICEF and NCERT launched the Project on
Integrated Education for Disabled (PIED) in 10 blocks
(the administrative level between district and village
(Thomas, 2005b)), that focused on teacher training in
order to encourage integration. PIED was later
amalgamated with the DPEP and SSA

28. • By the mid-1990s, IEDC was replaced by the
Integrated Education for the Disabled (IED) as
component of the DPEP
• The main aim of DPEP: universalize primary
education, including ensuring that CSN do not get
sideline (marginal) in the process of expansion
• It supports community mobilization and early
detection, in-service teacher training, architectural
design in schools , the establishment of resource
centres, teacher training, identification and
assessment of children with disabilities, and the
supply of specialist aids and appliances
(Mukhopadhyay, 2003)

29. District Primary Education Programme (DPEP)
• In1995, DPEP, funded 85% by Central government via a
World Bank loan and support from the European
Community, UNICEF and the UK and Netherlands
governments, and 15% by the State governments, focused
on the universalisation of primary education, particularly for
girls.
“to make the programme contextual, and for participatory
processes to empower and build capacity at all levels (GOI,
2002)”.
Alur (2002) argues that there were failures not so willingly
reported such as corruption in the form of budgets for non-
existent non-formal education centres, tribal dropout, the
difficulty of multigrade teaching in one-teacher schools, low
learning achievement, and no integration for children with
disabilities due to continued reliance on special school
systems. However, it is arguable that the existence of special
school systems does not necessarily obstruct vocational
integration in the mainstream.

30. Janshala
 A community schools programme, started in 1998 and
replaced by SSA, was a collaboration between the
Government of India and the UNDP, UNICEF, UNESCO,
the ILO, and UNFPA, and supported the government
drive towards universal primary education.
 It covered 120, mainly rural, blocks in 9 States where
there is evidence of low female literacy, child labour,
and SC/ST children not catered for under DPEP
(Mukhopadhyay, 2005).
 The Janshala programme, which has a component
designed to improve the attendance of difficult to reach
groups of children, including children with disabilities.

31. • The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has
set up 11 District Rehabilitation Centres in 10 states
(Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,
Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, West Bengal,
Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka)
• A similar scheme called the National Programme for
Rehabilitation for Persons with Disability (NPRPD)
was launched in 1999.
community-based rehabilitation as a strategy to
scale up basic rehabilitation services, and to create a
process for empowering people with disabilities, their
families and communities.

32. • Each gram panchayat will have two community-based
rehabilitation workers—for promoting community-
based rehabilitation of people with disabilities,
especially prevention, early detection and intervention.
• Each block will have two multipurpose rehabilitation
workers—for providing basic rehabilitation services,
and for coordinating activities with other government
agencies.
• District Referral and Training Centre: providing
comprehensive rehabilitation services to people with
disabilities covering all categories.
• State Resource Centre—to serve as the state-level apex
institution for training and human resources
development, and providing rehabilitation services
including those referred to it from lower levels

33. • Conference on Education for All, 1990:
The world conference Education for all held at
Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. It is a conference in
the development of thinking about inclusive
education

34. The Salamanca conference, UNESCO,1994:
• The conference was held at Salamanca (a city in
northwestern Spain) in 1994.
• The conference emphasized that School should
accommodate all children regardless of their
physical, intellectual, social, linguistic or other
conditions. This should include disabled and gifted
children, street and working children from remote or
nomadic population, children from linguistic, ethnic
or cultural minorities and children from other
disadvantaged or marginalized areas of groups

35. • PWD ACT, 1995
The Persons With Disabilities (Equal
Opportunities, Protection Of Rights And Full
Participation) Act, 1995
received the assent of the President on the 1st
January, 1996

36. World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal (2000):
• The conference was held at Dakar, Senegal, (West
Africa) in 2000.
• It was emphasized in the conference that Education
for all must take account of the need of the poor and
most disadvantaged including working children,
remote rural dwellers, nomads, ethnic and linguistic
minority children, young people and adults affected
by conflicts, HIV-AIDS, hunger and poor health and
those with special learning needs.

37. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Movement to Educate All)
2001
• SSA programme aims to achieve UEE for all.
• by effective decentralization, sustainable financing,
cost-effective strategies for universalization,
community-owned planning and implementation,
and focus on girls, marginalized caste groups and
ethnic minorities.
• Inclusive education is an integral component of SSA,
and success will largely depend on the extent of
enrolment, retention and achievement rates of
children with specials needs.

38. • SSA has adopted a zero rejection policy.
• This means that no child having special needs should
be deprived of the right to education and taught in
an environment, which is best, suited to his/her
learning needs MHRD,GoI,2011).

39. The National Action Plan for Inclusion in Education of Children
and Youth with Disabilities (IECYD)-2005
• Inclusion of children and young persons with
disability in all general educational settings from
Early Childhood to Higher Education.
• The goal of the Action Plan is –“to ensure the
inclusion of children and youth with disabilities in all
available general educational settings, by providing
them with a learning environment that is available,
accessible, affordable and appropriate.

40. World Education Forum and the Dakar Framework for Action
(2000)
• Held at Senegal, West Africa
• “needs of the poor and the most disadvantaged,
including working children, remote rural dwellers
and nomads, and ethnic and linguistic minorities,
children, young people and adults affected by
conflict, HIV/AIDS, hunger and poor health; and
those with special learning needs

41. National/apex-level institutes set up
1. National Institute for the Visually Handicapped (1982), an
autonomous body in Dehradun
2. National Institute for the Orthopedically Handicapped (1982), Kolkata
3. Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped (1983),
Mumbai
4. National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped (1984), Hyderabad
5. National Institute of Rehabilitation, Training and Research (1984),
Odisha
6. Institute for the Physically Handicapped (1976), Delhi
7. Rehabilitation Council of India (1986), Delhi.
Converted into a statutory body under the Rehabilitation Council of
India Act 1992. One objective is to prescribe minimum standards for
education and training of various categories of professionals dealing
with people with disabilities.

42. Community Based Rehabilitation by WHO

43. Time Line of Inclusive Education
(Kohama, 2012)
• 2000+ years ago: people with disabilities had “accessible”
toys.
• Before British Colonization: the gurukal system of education
is the primary system of education used in India.
• 1835: The Minute on Education is written by Thomas
Macaulay, documenting the British Government’s mission to
create a class of Indians with British values.
• 1869: The first special school is opened in India by Jane
Leupot, with support from the Church Missionary Society.
This school is for people who were blind.
• 1883: School for the deaf is opened in Bombay.
• 1887: School for people who are blind is opened in Amritsar
by Christian Missionaries.

44. • 1909: First attempted piece of legislation
regarding inclusion and education introduced
by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, under the Indian
Council Act of 1909. Bill was voted down.
• 1918: The first special school that will teach
people with intellectual disabilities is
established.

45. • 1937: Mohandas Gandhi introduces “basic education” to the
Indian people. It influenced governmental policy on
education for about 30 years but ultimately failed.
• 1944: The Sargent Report by the Central Advisory Board of
Education suggests that children with disabilities should be
entirely mainstreamed.
• 1947: India gains independence from British rule.
• 1950: India’s constitution is signed; includes part IX, article
45, which guarantees free and compulsory education for all
children (regardless of ability level) between the ages of 6-14.
• 1960s: Ministry of Education splits, creating the Ministry of
Social Welfare, which is given responsibility for the “weak
and vulnerable” sections of society. Began awarding grants to
nongovernmental organizations for the creation and upkeep
of special schools.

46. • 1964: The Kothari Commission creates a plan of action for
education of students of all ability levels. The government
of India never implements the plan of action, which
included people with disabilities in the mainstream school
system.
• 1974: The Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS)
which provided early childhood intervention for children
“at risk,” but failed to do so for children with disabilities.
• 1974: The Integrated Education Childhood Scheme (IEDC)
which provided financial support for children with
disabilities to try and help them be included in mainstream
classrooms

47. • 1981: UN Year of the Disabled Person
• 1982: UN Resolution 37/52, the World Program of Action,
adopted by the UN General Assembly as a result of the UN
Year of the Disabled Person. Paragraph 120 states that
education should be inclusive for people with disabilities.
• 1983-1992: The UN Decade of the Disabled Person.
• 1986: The National Policy on Education (NPE) stated that
children with “mild” disabilities should be taught in
mainstream classrooms, while students with “moderate to
severe” disabilities should be taught in segregated schools.
Also included a provision about mandatory teacher training
about inclusion.
• 1989: The UN General Assembly adopted the Tallinn
Guidelines for Action on Human Resource Development in
the Field of Disability. They highlight the importance of
early intervention and of inclusive education. 44

48. • 1989: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,
included the “standard rules on the equalization
opportunities for persons with disabilities” in the
implementation handbook.
• 1990: The Jomtien Conference on Education for All was
held in Jomtien, Thailand. People with disabilities were
not mentioned in the Declaration and Framework.
• 1992: The National Policy on Education’s Program of
Action broadens the definition of who should be included
in mainstream schooling and created a scheme for
implementing the 1986 NPE.
• 1992: The Rehabilitation Council of India Act provided
standards for rehabilitation professionals, one of those
being teachers of people with disabilities. This act
established consequences for teaching without a license.

49. • 1993: The case of Unnikrishnan vs. the state of Andhra
Pradesh, in which the court rules that Article 45 of the
constitution must be read in conjunction with Article 21
of the constitution, which makes elementary education
in India a fundamental right.
• 1994: The Salamanca Conference on Special Needs
Education is held in Salamanca, Spain. The Framework
for Action details the importance of inclusion.
• 1995: The People with Disabilities Act gives students
with disabilities the right to education in a free and
appropriate environment until they are 18 years of age,
provides resources for people with disabilities, and puts
further standards on teacher training.
• 2001: The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, or Education for All
Scheme, was created to help implement the PDA and
the 86th amendment to the constitution.

50. • 2002: 86th amendment to the constitution is made, which
official wrote the 1993 Unnikrishnan vs. the state of Andhra
Pradesh results into the constitution.
• 2005: The Action Plan for Inclusion of Children and Youth
with Disabilities was possibly the most important piece of
legislation around inclusion to date. This action plan
envisions that all children with a disability will have access
to mainstream education, and does not confine the ages to
students between 6-14.
• 2006: The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities is adopted and ratified by India; however, they
did not adopt or ratify the protocol. Article 24 of the
Convention discusses the importance of inclusion.
• 2006: The National Policy for People with Disabilities
changes special schools into resource centers for people
with disabilities and teachers. It also attempts to bridge the
service gap between rural and urban areas by creating
more District Disability and Rehabilitation Centers.

51. • 2008: Inclusive Education of the Disabled at the
Secondary Stage (IEDSS) replacing the 1974 IEDC.
• 2009: The Right to Education Act, which was
originally drafted in 2005, was not passed until
2009, and put into full effect in 2010. The
supreme court upheld the constitutionality of the
act in 2012. This act was not disability specific,
but rather included people with disabilities.

52. Thank you all
Welcome to next slide