Sentsuthung Odyuo
Wokha
With the advancement of educating young children, the world has likewise experienced an improvement in one manner or the other in this area. With its development, we have seen a few conventional schools opening spaces for students with a disability however there is a need to comprehend the various features of patterns resulting from changing paradigms of disability in the endeavour of the school to seek and provide the need for invigorating new perception in inclusive settings in reference with the education of students with disabilities with their non-disabled peers and teachers in the context of the general education classroom.
Conceptualising Disability
Deborah Kaplan, the Director of the World Institute on Disability, questions the definition of "person with a disability" and how persons with disabilities perceive themselves are knotty and complex. It is no accident that these questions are emerging at the same time that the status of persons with disabilities in society is changing dramatically. Disability also refers to the disadvantage or restriction of activity caused by the way society is organized which takes little or no account of people who have physical, sensory, or mental impairments. As a result, such people are excluded and prevented from participating fully on equal terms in mainstream society students with disabilities are diverse and have different needs and goals (Gargiulo & Kilgo, 2011).
Linking disability with Education
According to the Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), “Everyone has the right to education”, Rina Bokova, the Director-General of UNESCO, made a clear statement that, “We raise the flag for education as a universal human right - no one must be denied access because of disability”. The development of inclusive education has gained momentum in the past few decades, certainly in the western world. A direct effect of this development was that in many countries separate schools for special education closed in favour of growing numbers of students with disabilities attending regular schools, according to UNESCO, the educational system of India has seen a transformation for years, the state, as well as central board, determine respective regulations in schools, some tend to be inclusive but other fail to recognize the needs, over the years, “differing orientations toward students with disabilities has led to a myriad of interpretations of what it means to provide inclusive opportunities for students with special needs, in particular those with intellectual disabilities”(Neubert & Moon, 2006; Rogers & Lavine, 2008). Much variation exists within the population of students with disabilities; however, particular disability classifications are more strongly linked to negative educational outcomes, as well as to a lack of confidence, self-consciousness, and difficulties in understanding language and instructions (Heckman & LaFontaine, 2010).
Theoretical Strength-based approach
According to Zaretsky(2005), currently, there is a paucity of dialogue about special education theorizing in the practitioner's arena. For example, few practitioners stand what theoretical underpinnings are associated with the practice of full inclusion or why others might favour a range of alternative placement options from segregated to integrated special education settings for students with special needs. In every prospect on the life of students with a disability, there arises a measurement to calculate their participation in different settings by determining whether s(he) is being excluded in daily affairs or not, or in other words how much of their belongingness are being noticed, strength perspective is one that helps initiate their capabilities. Hewitt(2005), in his article, remarked a question of why some people are successful with students while others have given up on them? the author argues that it's because they have a strength-based focus and an optimistic perspective. Hewitt also mentioned that, although in some ways it's helpful to know what the child cannot do or does not like, focusing on it does little to solve the problem for it does not brings us any closer to finding out what the can do or like, there is no objective for success when the whole vision is determining what the child cannot do, but should rather focus on the other aspect of what child can do, and in what way a child will find ways to grow, learn and change with a passage of time.
Legal mandates in the Context of India
The constitution of India guarantees equal treatment in every aspect irrespective of gender, caste, race, etc. The Right to Education of India features some mandate that seeks to provide inclusion of students with a disability, but ironically there are very few researches being done on the impact of RTE with students with disability. Wherein the Constitution of India applies uniformly to every legal citizen of India, whether they are healthy or disabled in any way (physically or mentally), the right to education is available to all citizens including the disabled. Article 29(2) of the Constitution provides that “no citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on the ground of religion, race, caste or language”. Article 45 of the Constitution directs the State to provide free and compulsory education for all children (including the disabled) until they attain the age of 14 years. No child can be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on the ground of religion, race, caste or language. The constitution vividly attributes the equality that it brought about, but in reality that does not seem to incur much of a formidable reason for the practice, there is a need to rectify for a comprehensive law that requires both in practice as well as in theory.
Discussion
There is a tier need for intervention in school establishment, keeping the notion in mind that school teachers are not well equipped or trained to work with students with a disability, professionals must bridge the gap in connecting with students with disability through a strength-based approach to improve the Self-esteem of the student. Generally, parents hold a large amount of the challenges in taking care of the child, therefore a supportive programme should be developed to reach out to parents who are in such situations. There is a need to develop an inclusive model for teachers-students participation.
Identifying common reasons why school students with disabilities face difficulties can inform the successful application of various prevention strategies and techniques that might eventually be generalized to other populations. While students may face difficulties for diverse reasons, common factors may exist that could point to opportunities for change within the school to better support at-risk students. Issues surrounding relationships, family needs, lack of self-confidence, teacher’s attitudes, lack of peer support and increased responsibility are some of the things that students with disabilities faced.
Over the last few years, both scholars and practitioners in special education and disability studies have begun to critique the whole notion of inclusion, creating a heated debate about what exactly constitutes inclusive educational programs and practices for students with disabilities. Two approaches to providing accommodations and modifications are widely used by general education teachers in their classrooms. The American Federal law and The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires schools to serve the educational needs of eligible students with disabilities, Schools in India should also adopt this method including the Differentiated instruction model in which teachers plan flexible approaches to instruction in the following areas: content, process, product, affect, and learning environment.
Measures for inclusive policy
To inculcate inclusiveness in the education system, it is not solely the role of certain individuals, there is a need for collaborative intervention between teachers, special tutors, students, and parents to meet the needs of students who have disabilities, it will enhance their confidence and abilities in coping up with the right platform. Studies indicate that different schools use different methods for inclusion policies to provide the need for those students who have any form of disability, this will enhance in sorting out the procedure to what is to be done and implemented. A child with a disability will certainly face challenges more than those who have no forms of disabilities, it creates many complications to the fact that they coupled the amount of learning as compared to other students. However, like “The butterfly gains its strength from beating its wings against the chrysalis”, likewise students with disability may need to struggle to find their place in formal educational settings but they will find their way out from the system that prevails at schools, including teachers, peers, and parents that shape their understanding to deal with such people because at the end every individual is bounded by a cage-like wall surrounded by various human being which in course of time also becomes the shaper and creator. In the event that a child socializes only with another student like him/her, h(she) won’t learn much about the different lifestyles and various ways of life of other people, and accordingly, as opposed to keeping them just in a specific setting, they ought to be conceded in a proper foundation.
The writer is a Research Scholar at Christ University.
