Answer to Question #298214 in Psychology for Mercy

Question

Critically analyse the progress of the implementation of policies and legislation on Inclusive

Education in South Africa or any other country of your choice. Provide a critical analysis of the

policies related to Inclusive Education. Why do you think that many countries, including South

Africa, are failing to implement these policies?

Answer 1

Evolution of Policies on Inclusive Education in India

 

Growth of ‘special schools’ (1966–1995):

 Even though socio-economic inclusion was envisioned as far back as 1966 through the neighborhood schooling concept of the National Education Commission, it was done with a regressive vision regarding the education of students with an intellectual disability.

The National Education Commission had acknowledged that ordinary classrooms in India were primarily designed for the ‘average’ learner’s needs. Therefore, special classes and individual tuition were proposed as solutions for non-average learners’ ‘proper emotional and social development’. The establishment of separate special schools was noted as unfeasible across India, unlike in some educationally advanced countries.

Yet, special school set-ups in India grew over the decades as the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment took over ‘inclusion work’ while ‘education’ services have been under the Ministry of Human Resource Development. ‘Inclusion-work’ is used to signify the importance of daily work by community members to materialize inclusion.

As a result of this apparent separation of responsibilities, both the National Policy on Education, 1986 and the landmark Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 provisioned for and the setting up of special schools so that students in every region would have access to them. The 1995 Act also called for the preferential allotment of land for such schools.

 

A departure from an explicit focus on ‘special schools’ (2016): 

With the passage of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act in 2016, ‘inclusive education’ became a statutory guarantee. Importantly, of this Act guarantees that children with benchmark disabilities – defined as someone with at least 40% of a specified disability – have a right to free education in neighborhood schools or in special schools. This is a noticeable departure from the 1995 legislation, which explicitly promoted the establishment of special schools for children with disabilities.

Accordingly, it is also important for the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 to be cognizant of these developments in frameworks for ‘inclusive’ education, and provide for necessary amendments. Presently, there is no mention of special schools or an inclusionary framework for education in the Act.

 

Way forward

Vidhi’s research has delved both into the contentions in different existing legislations on inclusive education and how this translates on the ground. Partly, the reason could be that there are different discourses on the meaning of ‘inclusive education’, which arise from the fact that there are real differences in disabilities/languages (language is invoked in the case of sign language here) themselves.

In the midst of the varied policy approaches to inclusion, including inclusive education, the Delhi government’s recent proposal & nbsp to provide resource center services, such as occupational therapy and services of clinical psychologists, alongside formal school instruction to students with disabilities in government schools, is a careful step towards progression.

More states need to move towards an inclusionary model of learning that allows students with varying abilities, including those from different socio-economic backgrounds, to be in common learning and work spaces. 

References

(2022). Retrieved 15 February 2022, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341541977_THE_ORIGINS_AND_EVOLUTION_OF_SOCIAL_EXCLUSION_IN_INDIA_A_HISTORICAL_ANALYSIS.