OBSERVER RESEARCH FOUNDATION MUMBAI
Ideas and Action for a Better India
Inclusion is
“A sense of belonging: feeling respected, valued for who you are; feeling a
level of supportive energy and commitment from others so that you can do your
best. It is about valuing all individuals, giving equal access and opportunity to
all and removing discrimination and other barriers to involvement.”
Miller and Katz (2002)
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the
world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
2
Change Agents for School Education and Research (CASER), a broad-based platform working
towards quality education, hosted educators, experts, doctors, teachers, academicians,
researchers, NGOs, working in the area of inclusive and special needs education and experts
from the Department of School Education, Government of Maharashtra (GoM) for a day-long
roundtable on, ‘Transforming Inclusive Education through Innovations: dreams, designs and
solutions for education of children with special needs’ on 27 November, 2014. The event was
co-organised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) Mumbai, Sol’s Arc and Atma. The event
was attended by close to 60 experts working in different aspects of special education. The
attendees included the parent of an autistic child, an MBA student who had a challenging
livelihood since he was born deaf, special educators working at the grass-root level in rural
Maharashtra and doctors from government hospitals.
The discussion focused on three key areas of Disability Certification and Education Concessions,
Pedagogies for Special children and governance/ policy issues in Inclusive Education.
Everyone agreed that there’s a need to educate everyone in the society and government
towards an inclusive mind-set, and the needs of children with disabilities. The system will also
need to be significantly ramped up to handle the different challenges. The key takeaways and
recommendations that emerged from the discussion are highlighted in the next page.
The experts lamented that they are not involved in the process of education – from planning,
policy making to implementation and assessment.
Marking a departure from this perception, the government actively participated in the
discussion, and emphasised the need to jointly work towards improving the overall quality of
education, especially education for children with special needs, that is currently not given the
desired and much needed attention. As an immediate follow-up, GoM has invited all experts
to join a discussion on how they can participate in the plan for school education, for the year
2015, with focus on inclusive and special needs education on 5th December, 2014 at ORF
Mumbai (from 11 am to 2 pm).
S U M M A R Y
3
Key Takeaways
1. There’s an urgent need to move education for special children from Ministry of Social
Justice and Welfare to Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). Currently
several education and development needs are being compromised – this shift will be
critical to move from a mode of welfare and rehabilitation to inclusion and
empowerment.
2. Mainstream education of special children in regular schools, as far as possible. Teachers
who can provide care and education to special children should receive attractive
incentives, so that best talent comes to this profession.
3. It is important for the government and society to move to a ‘social model’ of inclusion
from the current ‘medical model’. The social model is one that looks at eliminating
different barriers to education and care, so that children reach their full potential and
become self-reliant by not pushing them out of the system.
4. The government should open adequate number of schools for special children needing
serious attention and therapy. The government should also adequately support NGOs
engaged in this service.
5. Special education, especially after the eighth standard should focus on skill development
and generating livelihood. The National Skill Development Mission can play a crucial role
here.
6. Process for disability certification and education concessions needs to be simplified, and
made more accessible and available – which includes increasing capacity.
7. We need to define ‘learning disability’ and its different types better and increase
awareness and response readiness.
8. We need to form core groups that can work together on different focus areas and make
recommendations and suggest scalable, replicable and sustainable solutions to the
government. The areas include pedagogy, curriculum and resources, teacher training,
assessment and evaluation, impact assessment of government programmes, next steps
on education concessions, early detection and intervention, charting the long-term plan
and even conducting studies, research and pilots.
9.
4
S E S S I O N 1 : I N C L U S I V E E D U C A T I O N L A N D S C A P E , D I S A B I L I T Y
C E R T I F I C A T I O N & E D C U A T I O N A L C O N C E S S I O N S
The roundtable began with a presentation
by Ms Sakina Chhil, Sol’s Arc on
‘Inclusive Education: The current
Scenario – What is good, what is not?’
The issues include:
1. Inclusion in India is not taking place
today in the true sense; there is
physical inclusion of children within
mainstream classrooms with no
emphasis on learning outcomes.
2. A child with special needs today faces
a gamut of obstacles that hold him
back from achieving and learning to
the best of the potential.
3. For instance, compare the facilities
and services available to a regular
child and a child with special needs:
4. There are an estimated 50 million or
even more children with disabilities in
the country but they barely have any
access to any kind of early
intervention!
WHAT WE NEED IS A SHIFT IN
PERSPECTIVE.
The world today has moved decades
ahead from the medical model to the
social model. However in India we still
look at all issues from the medical model
perspective instead of the social model.
We still look at the person with disability
as the problem; instead we as a society
should be looking how we have created
barriers for them and therefore remove
the barriers.
Educational
opportunities
Normal
child
Special
needs child
Curriculum ✔ ✖
Learning Materials ✔ ✖
Recognised Certification ✔ ✖
Appropriate
Evaluations ✔ ✖
Higher Learning
opportunities ✔ ✖
Job opportunities ✔ ✖
Productive member of
the society ✔ ✖
Painting made by special children at Sol’s Arc
5
6
Government Schemes for Inclusive
Education
Various schemes under the Government
of India and Government of Maharashtra
have been implemented for Special
Education for Children with Special
Needs (CWSN) through the Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for children in the
age group of 6 to 14 years under SSA-IED
(Inclusive Education for the Disabled)
and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha
Abhiyan (RMSA) for children in the age
group of 14 to 18+ years under RMSA-
IEDSS (Inclusive Education for the
Disabled at Secondary Stage). Mr
Shrinivas Shastri, the Under Secretary of
Department of School Education and
Sports, Government of Maharashtra
outlined the details:
The following support is offered towards
the education for CWSN:
1. Psychological, Educational and
Physical Assessments
2. Options of:
a. Early identification (0-6 years) now
under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya
Karyakram under Women and
Children Department (RBSK/
WCD).
b. Classroom support, provided by
the class teacher.
c. Inclusive support with partial
support of a special educator.
d. Integrated support in a regular
school, with full support of a
special educator.
e. Mapping of special teachers
f. Schedule of visits by expert
resources.
g. Special teacher provision,
disability-wise
h. Resource room for integrated
support in school
i. Transport/ attendant facility
j. Aid/Appliances/corrective surgery
k. Teacher Training
There has been a significant increase in
enrolments and facilities through these
schemes over the years. However IED and
IEDSS schemes face a few issues:
1. Enrolments have increased but
children find it difficult to cope with
the content taught in schools.
2. The children have difficulties
adjusting in class.
3. Evaluations are difficult.
4. Parents and teachers feel insecure
about the students.
5. The schemes are unable to reach out to
children on streets and in rural, far-off,
and remote areas.
6. Attitudinal barriers still persist.
7. Retention of children is tough.
8. Care for older children is difficult.
7
The future plans of IED and IEDSS
include:
1. Early detection and intervention;
2. Handbook on Inclusive Education and
adaptive curriculum;
3. Monitoring;
4. Vocational and skill based
programmes – home-based as well as
in coordination with ITI centres;
5. Workshops, Counselling, Teacher
training;
6. Grievance redressal forum and parent
group;
7. Therapies including sensory training
and therapeutic equipment.
The action plan going forward will be
decided in a follow-up meeting on 5th
December, 2014, between the
government, special educators and
interested organisations. The different
stakeholders will work together on the
relevant SSA and RMSA projects.
Disability Certification & Educational
Concessions for children with
disabilities
The mother of an autistic 16 year old to
narrate her woeful tale of how she had to
take her son to the hospital, for a battery
of tests. She had to visit the hospital close
to 17 times, not to mention long waiting
periods in between, for a Disability
Certificate that came with an expiry date
and did not serve the final purpose of him
being able to sit for his examinations.
Apart from this, a few test materials were
available only in Hindi or Marathi.
Currently, there are many issues
regarding the Disability certification and
concession, which affects the self-esteem
of CWSN.
Many of the deviant behaviours we
see are from children who are
excluded.
Many children end up getting pushed
out of the mainstream system towards
the National Institute of Open
Schooling (NIOS).
Principals and parents are unaware of
disabilities and also of concessions
and provisions.
There’s a dearth of government
hospitals offering disability
certification, resulting in long waiting
periods. Also, due to multi-
department dependence, the process
is extremely cumbersome.
It was widely agreed that everyone’s
attitude towards disability needs to be
changed: moving from a pure ‘medical
disability model’ to a ‘social model’,
where society adapts to the disabilities
and difficulties of the child. Educational
concession and certification should also be
8
rethought of, in this context – the child
should be provided an environment to
perform, rather than being branded
negatively. The existing processes should be
made simpler and
faster, with lesser
procedural
barriers. This is
in fact the
theme of Sol’s
Arc’s campaign,
which was
elaborated by
Ms Jinisha
Chedda from
Sol’s ARC.
One should
look at
accrediting
organisations for
certification
under the supervision of government – all
kinds of certification do not need the
intervention of medical doctors. Uniform
and better learning outcomes should be given
higher priority.
Dr Harish Shetty, renowned psychiatrist
and activist, who moderated the session
emphasised on inclusivity and the role
that society and government should play
in making sure that the child feels self-
assured and confident. We need to ensure
that the child can ‘stay’ in the system
happily, rather than be in a hurry to say a
‘bye’.
While, the roundtable
was discussing the
various solutions that
had been suggested,
Mr Shastri reminded
everyone that, “In the
Government, we have to
think about over 74,000
special kids. Solutions
should consider their
feasibility and macro-
impact.”
Dr Shetty summed up
the morning session in three points, “The
points that are emerging are
provisions/accommodation for
intellectually disabled, urgency for
increasing number of equipped and
certified centers, disability does not cause
loss of self-esteem it is the response from
system. Let’s see to it that children are not
pushed out of the system.”
“The self-esteem of a student is also based on
whether he/ she can get an autograph from all
teachers and whether a principal patted him/
her on the back. Currently, exclusion is
happening big time! We need to cross-sensitise
ourselves. SSC exam should cease to be just a
rote-ability tracking exam.”
~ Dr Harish Shetty
9
S E S S I O N 2 : T E A C H T H E W A Y T H E Y L E A R N : I N N O V A T I O N S I N
P E D A G O G Y
The post-lunch session saw a presentation
chaired by Ms Sonali Saini, Founder
Chairperson Sol's Arc. The session
focussed on the need for making support
learning materials available to children
with disabilities. This can significantly
result in improved learning outcomes. The
issues in learning for inclusion are:
The pace of learning is too fast;
The adaptation of learning material is
dependent on the teacher’s skills and
abilities;
There is no standardisation of learning
milestones or accountability for
learning outcomes – most children with
special needs do not achieve even the
basic literacy skills by the end of their
schooling years;
Higher learning skills as well as
vocational skills that are required for
job opportunities and self-reliance are
unavailable.
The roundtable discussing the move from ‘medical disability model’ to ‘social model’
”Today Inclusion is only physical
inclusion of children in class with no
onus for learning outcomes.”
~ Sonali Saini
10
The roundtable participants opined on
other pedagogies and curricula for children
with special needs –
there were several
viewpoints, but many
agreed on using
‘textbooks’ as
powerful tools, but
only in the hands of a
well-trained teacher,
who has autonomy
and can personalise
learning experiences.
Ideally all teachers
should be ‘inclusive’ / special educators –
since special education, helps teachers to
“teach better, more attuned to the diverse
needs of children”. We should also
formalise M.Ed and B.Ed programmes in
inclusive and special needs education, so
that more teachers can be trained,
sensitised and more relevant research and
progress can be made.
Dr Suvarna Kharat, Project Coordinator,
RMSA emphasised that, “a R&D policy for
education could play a great role in further
improving the quality of research,
information and
generating
solutions to
problems in
education. This
will also improve
the synergy
between needs
and goals of the
government and
researchers.”
Dr Shakuntala Kale, Deputy Director,
MSCERT as well as Mr Shastri suggested
that inputs from the Government and
MSCERT should be considered and a pilot
study should be conducted after a joint
discussion on pedagogy adaptations, and
adoption at a large scale.
Mr Shastri suggesting that a pilot study be
conducted and follow-up core groups be formed,
for focused discussion and action.
L to R: Dr Suvarna Kharat ; Mrs Nisha Grover – addressing the participants
11
S E S S I O N 3 : F R O M E X C L U S I O N A N D R E H A B I L I T A T I O N T O
I N C L U S I O N A N D E M P O W E R M E N T
Mrs Nisha Grover, President, National
Convention of Educators of the Deaf, India
emphasised on how a child’s fundamental
right to education is compromised due
to the fragmentation between MHRD and
Ministry of Social Justice and Welfare.
Applauding the openness and
approachability of the government, Mr
Sudheendra Kulkarni, Chairman, Observer
Research Foundation
Mumbai, remarked how
“today’s roundtable is a
testament of how proactive
and sensitive people can
become agents of change –
by making the right,
constructive noise.” He
encouraged the forum to
concretise the
recommendations and
lobby the government to
bring about change, both at
the Centre and at the State. He felt that
vocational and life-skills development is
key – and only by providing that to the
children can we ensure that they are self-
reliant and live in dignity.
The group agreed that the term
‘learning disabilities’ needs to be defined
better, and one also needs to remove the
term ‘mental retardation’ from everyone’s
vocabulary.
CASER is proud to announce the
success of its effort to get the
Government and the NGOs, experts
and researchers
working on education
for special children on
the same side. The
follow-up session on 5th
December is expected
to deliver some tangible
markers to guide this
coalescence of goals
and processes between
the Government of Maharashtra and
the civil society. ORF will strengthen
this process and play the role of a
guiding agent to reduce the dichotomy
between the government and the civil
society working on school education.
Mr Kulkarni encouraged all to
concretise the recommendations
and lobby the government.
12
O B S E R V E R R E S E A R C H F O U N D A T I O N M U M B A I
Observer Research Foundation (ORF) is a leading non-partisan
Indian think-tank that seeks to influence public policy formulation. It
was established in New Delhi in 1990 by R.K. Mishra, a widely
respected public figure, who envisaged it as a broad-based intellectual platform
pulsating with ideas needed for India’s nation-building.
ORF has brought together leading Indian policy makers, academics, public figures,
social activists and business leaders to discuss various issues of national importance.
ORF scholars have made significant contributions toward improving government
policies. ORF has produced a large body of critically acclaimed publications.
Beginning 2010, ORF Mumbai has been established to pursue the Foundation’s vision
in India’s business and financial capital. Its research and advocacy is in six broad
areas: Education, Public Health, Inclusive Development, Urban Renewal, Youth
Development, and Promotion of India’s Priceless Artistic and Cultural Heritage.
ORF Mumbai’s mission statement is: Ideas and Action for a Better India.
ORF Mumbai has set up a few platforms for focused work on different initiatives –
Change Agents for School Education and Research, Change Agents for Higher
Education and Research (currently pursuing reforms in science and engineering
education), Mumbai Solar Mission, Mumbai Transport Forum, Placemaking, Mumbai
against Tuberculosis, Drive against Diabetes, Malaria, Dengue.
Recently, ORF Mumbai has set up the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Cleanliness,
Sanitation and Community Health to work towards Swachh Bharat, Mission 2019 in
partnership with a community based organisation, Triratna Prerana Mandal.
Contact us at:
Observer Research Foundation Mumbai
NKM International House, 5th Floor,
178 Backbay Reclamation, Babubhai Chinai Marg,
Mumbai 400 020
Please be a part of the Change Agents for School Education and Research (CASER):
Like us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/ORF.CASER
Top Related