………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Unit II Educational demands of
individuals and diverse communities
Universalaization
of primary education - Programmes to achieve universalisation of education:
SSA, RMSA, RUSA, integrated education and inclusive education - Challenges in
achieving universalisation of education - Education for collective living and
peaceful living: Four pillars of education as viewed by Delor’s Commission
Report.
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Universalisation of
primary education
At the time of Independence,
India inherited a system of education which was not only quantitatively small
but also characterized by structural imbalances. As education is vitally linked
with the totality of the development process, the reform and restructuring of
the educational system was recognized as an important area of state
intervention.
Primary education deserves the highest priority for
arising the competence of the average worker and for increasing National
productivity. The provision for Universal Elementary Education represents an
indispensable first step towards the provisions of equality of opportunity to
all citizens.
Article 45 of the Indian Constitution directed
that "The state shall endeavour to provide within a period of ten years from
- the commencement of this constitution for free
and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of
fourteen years."
Universalisation
of education implies five things namely, universalisation of provision,
universalisation of enrolment, universalisation of retention universalisation
of participation and universalisation of achievement.
Since
independence many steps have been taken and different commissions and
committees have given suggestions to achieve universalization of Primary Education.
But it is still far from the hope and the national target.
Background:
Compulsory
provision of Universal Primary Education is an extremely modern concept. No
solid efforts were made till the beginning of the 20th century. The earliest
attempt during British Rule for enforcing compulsory primary education was
undertaken by William Adam in 1838.
In 1852,
Captain Wingate, the Revenue Survey Commissioner in Bombay proposed to impart
compulsory education to the children of agriculturists after realizing a less
of 5 per cent for it. Later on a similar proposal was also followed in Gujurat.
Compulsory
Education Act in 1870 in England
A strong
consciousness for the need of compulsory Primary Education in India was
effected by enactment of the Compulsory Education
Act in 1870 in England. A number of Indian leaders began to stress the
need for primary education. In 1906 a Committee was appointed in Bombay
Province and it arrived at a conclusion that Compulsory Education was not
proper and people were not prepared for it.
The great son
of India Gopal Krishni Gokhale was the
ablest advocate of compulsory primary education. He moved a Resolution in 1910
in the Central Legislature and again introduced a non- official Bill in 1919.
The Bill had wide and popular support, but it was defeated.
Bomaby
Primary Education Act
Vithal Bhai
Patel being inspired by Gokhale’s efforts brought a bill in the Provincial
Legislature of Bombay and it became Bomaby Primary
Education Act. 1918. India Act of 1919
(Mont-Fort Reforms) introduced diarchy and
Education became a Transferred subject under control of a Minister responsible
to the Legislature.
With Provincial
Autonomy in 1937 Congress Ministries were formed in six out of eleven
provinces-. These Governments expanded compulsory primary education in their
provinces. Primary Schools were established in Schoolless village/habitations,
which had no facilities to send their children to nearby schools at an easy
walking distance of one mile (now 1km.).
With the advent
of complete independence in 1947, the advocate of Universal Primary Education
had to speak to their Indian administrators and officers. The education of the
school going children of the country now became the responsibility of the
people.
Article
45 of the Constitution of India
In 1950 the provision of Universal Primary
Education was incorporated in the Article 45 of the
Constitution of India
The provision
of Universalization of Primary education was scheduled to be achieved by 1960.
But a view of the immense difficulties such as lack of adequate resources,
tremendous increases in population, resistance to the education of girls, large
number of children of the of the backward classes in very low literacy regions,
general poverty of the people, apathy of illiterate Parents etc. it was not
possible to make adequate progress and as such, the constitutional Directive
has remained unfulfilled.
An insistent
demand was made that Government should fix an early deadline for its fulfilment
and should prepare a concrete programme of action for the purpose. Government
decided to achieve the goal of universalization of all children on a time-bound
programme as recommended by the Conference of State Education Ministers in
1977.
Working
Group on Universalization of Elementary Education
Accordingly, a Working Group on Universalization of Elementary Education
was set up by the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Planning Commission to prepare a time-bound
programme during the medium term plan (1978-83).
Despite serious
attempts the primary education was not universalized. So the national
government wanted to launch a massive campaign to universalize it before 1995
which has been assured in the NPE, 1986. Later on achievement of VEE through
Education for All (EFA) by 2000 AD has been fixed.
Centrally sponsored schemes for Universalisation of
primary education
The parliament has passed the constitution 86th amendment Act, 2002 to make elementary education a
Fundamental Right for children in the age group of 6-14 years. This was
followed by a framework of partnership between the centre and the state governments on a massive scale through a number of
centrally sponsored schemes such as District
Primary Education Programme, Lok Jumbish Project, Mid Day Meal Scheme SSA,RMSA,RUSA,
Education Guarantee Scheme, Alternative and Innovative Education, Shiksha Karmi
Project, Janshala Programme etc.
Problems of elementary education
There are some problems of elementary
education such as out of school children, working children, or child labourers,
parents ignorance family’s poor financial conditions, attitude of parents
towards girl’s education, distance of the school from the place of residence,
lack of provision of basic infrastructure and lack of women teachers in the
school is another problem
RTE
Act of 2009
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act,
2009, in short RTE Act, is the most important development in the
Universalisation of Elementary Education in India. It guarantees
universalisation of quality education at elementary level in the country.
The law came to
effect on 1 April, 2010, (except for the state of J&K), by Prime Minister,
Dr. Manmohan Singh. The Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009 empowers children
belonging to the backward section of the economy to free and compulsory
education. The Right to Education Act made compulsory all government and
private sector schools across India to provide 25 percent reservation to
children between the age group of 6 and 14 belonging to the weaker section of
the country access to free and compulsory education. India became one of the
135 countries to make education a fundamental right of every child, when the
act finally came into practice in April 2010.
The Right to Education act stretches to 18 years of coverage for children with disabilities, and other provisions covered in the act range from infrastructure development, teacher-student ratio and faculty are mentioned in the act.
Implementation &
Funding
The Right to Education act has clearly laid down distinct
responsibilities for the centre, state and local bodies for its implementation.
However, a lot of states have been complaining about the lack of funds being
received which is making it impossible to meet with the appropriate standard of
education in the schools needed for universal education. Hence, the centre that
is at the receiving end of the revenue will have to subsidize for the states.
A committee set up to study the
fund requirement for the implementation of the act estimated an initial capital
requirement of approximately Rs. 171000 crores or 1.71 trillion over 5 years,
and in April 2010 the Indian government agreed to share the funding of the
price at a ratio of 65 to 35 between the centre and the state and a ratio of 90
to 10 for the Northeastern states. Later the principal amount was then
increased to Rs. 231000 crores and the centre agreed to raise its share to 68%.
However there is much debate on this. Another important development in 2011 was
to further stretch the act and implement it till the preschool age range, hence
the age ceiling would rise from 14 years now to 16 years and would cover till
class 10. . However this is under talks.
Criticism
On completion of one year a report was released by the
Human Resource Development ministry, which did not reflect happy numbers. The
Right to education act has met with a lot of criticism such as being called a
draft that was hastily prepared, there was not much consultation made on the
quality of education, on excluding children under the 6 year age range. Many of
the schemes have been compared to that of the Sarva Sikhsha Abhivan and DPEP of
the 90’s which was criticized for being ineffective and corrupted. The
Right to Education Act also seems to have left out the orphans, since during
the time of admission a lot of documents are required, like that of birth
certificate, BPL certificates and the orphans deprived of such documents
are not eligible to apply.
Programmes to achieve Universalisation of Education Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan (SSA)
SSA has been operational launched with an aim of
achieving the objective of universal primary education during 2000-2001. The
expenditure on the programme was shared by the Central Government and State
Governments. Sarva Shiksha Abiyan means “Education for All”. SSA is an effort to
universalise elementary education by community-ownership of the school system.
The main mission of SSA is to provide useful and
relevant elementary education for all children in the 6 to 14 age group by
2010.
Main
Features of SSA
1. It’s a programme with a clear time frame for
universal elementary education.
2. A response to the demand for quality basic
education all over the country.
3. An opportunity for promoting social justice
through basic education.
4. An expression of political will for universal
elementary education across the country.
5. A partnership between the central, state and the
local governments.
6. An opportunity for states to develop their own
vision of elementary education.
7. An effort at effective involving the Panchayat
Raj Institutions, School Management Committees, Village and Urban Slum Level
Education Committees, Parents Teachers’ Associations, Mother -Teacher
Associations, Tribal Autonomous Councils and other grass root level structures
in the management of elementary schools.
Aims of SSA
1. To provide useful and elementary education for
all children in the 6-14 age group.
2. To bridge social, regional and gender gaps with
the active participation of community in the management of schools.
3. To allow children to learn about and master
their natural environment in order to develop their potential both spiritually
and materially.
4. To inculcate value-based learning, this allows
children an opportunity to work for each other’s well- being rather than to
permit mere selfish pursuits.
5. To realize the importance of Early Childhood
Care and Education and looks at the 6-14 age as range.
Objectives of SSA
1. All Children in School, Education Guarantee
Centre, Alternate School, ‘Back-to-School’ Camp by 2003.
2. All children to complete five years of primary
schooling by 2007.
3. All children to complete elementary schooling by
2010.
4. Focus on elementary education of satisfactory
quality with emphasis on education for life.
5. Bridge all gender and social category gaps at
primary stage by 2007 and at elementary education level by 2010.
6. Universal retention by 2010.
Challenges in achieving Universal Elementary
Education
Even though there are various approaches of the
Government in making universalization of elementary education successful, let
us also know the hurdles in making the universalization of elementary education
in India.
Ø Policy
of Government
The
constitutional directive is that States shall endeavor to provide free and
compulsory education to all children until they complete the age of 14 years.
But it is a matter of regret that the prescribed goal has not been reached as
yet. The main cause for this is that the policy of
Government was based on idealism.
Basic
education was accepted as the form of national education. Being inspired with
this aim, work started to convert the existing primary schools into basic
schools. India is a vast country with a very large population. Money was too much in shortage for implementation
of so expensive a scheme of conversion of a large
number of elementary schools.
Ø Administration
of Education
In most
of the States, the responsibility of universal primary education is on the authorities of Blocks, Municipalities and Educational
Districts. The progress of expansion of primary education gets slow
because of the indifference and incapability of these institutions. It is the
responsibility of the nation to educate its citizens. It is necessary that the
Government of India should take upon itself the sacred work of universal
enrolment and universal retention at the elementary stage.
Ø Inadequacy
of Money
Money
is a serious problem that confronts primary schools. Income of the local
institutions responsible for primary education is so much limited that they are
totally incapable of meeting the expenditure of compulsory education.
Ø Shortage
of Trained Teachers
There
is shortage of trained teachers to make ‘Elementary Education Universal and
Compulsory’. Nowadays, the young teachers do not wish to work in rural areas.
But the fact remains that majority of primary schools are in rural areas. The chief
reason of non-availability of suitable teachers is the low salary of primary
teachers.
Ø School
Buildings
Even
the Third and Fourth All India Educational Surveys indicate that even now there
are lakhs of villages and habitations without schools. There are nearly 4 lakhs
schools less villages in India. It is not that easy to provide necessary funds
for setting up such a large number of schools with buildings and other
equipments.
Ø Unsuitable
Curriculum
The curriculum for primary schools is narrow
and unsuitable to the local needs. The
curriculum should be interesting for the children for its continuance. Learning by work should replace the emphasis on monotonous bookish knowledge. Education of craft
should be given in the primary schools in accordance with the local needs and
requirements. But the schemes of craft education
in the primary schools should not of highly expensive ones.
Ø Wastage
and Stagnation
It is
another major problem and great obstacle for Universalization of Elementary
Education, due to the lack of educational atmosphere, undesirable environment, lack of devoted teachers, poor economic condition of
parents, and absence of proper equipments. In order to check such
massive wastage and stagnation at the primary stage, existing educational
system and curriculum should be reformed, teaching
method should be interesting, school buildings should be adequate and
neat and clean, and the parents should be educated. These members may help to
solve the problem of wastage and stagnation at elementary level.
Ø Social
Evils
Social evils like superstition,
illiteracy faith in ancient conventions and customs, child marriages, untouchability, purdah system, etc
create obstacle in the expansion of compulsory primary education.
Because
of illiteracy and ignorance these social evils grow. The educated young men and
women should volunteer themselves to remove these evils of society in their
neighbourhood.
Rashtriya Madhayamik Shiksha Abiyan (RMSA)
The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)
is a flagship scheme of Government of India, launched in 2009 to enhance access
to secondary education and improve its quality.
The Ministry for Human Resource Development
(MHRD) has brought out a “Framework of Implementation of Rashtriya Madhyamik
Shiksha Abhiyaan”. The framework provides a detailed road map for the
implementation of access and equity related components of Universalisation of
Secondary Education (USE) and also deliberates upon quality components
providing norms largely for infrastructure requirements.
It is a shared scheme of the Centre and State
Governments to achieve Universalization of Secondary Education (USE). Free and
Compulsory Elementary Education has become a Constitutional Right of Children
in India.
The vision of RMSA is to make
secondary education of good quality accessible and affordable to all school age
children in the age group of 14-18 years. This vision statement points out
towards three “As”, i.e. Availability, Accessibility and Affordability of
Secondary Education.
RMSA get support from a wide range of
stakeholders including multilateral organisations, NGOs, advisors and
consultants, research agencies and institutions. The scheme involves
multidimensional research, technical consulting, implementation, and funding
support.
A society was set up in Tamil Nadu for operating
the RMSA programme. The society primarily focuses
on upgradation of middle schools to high schools to provide universal access
and quality secondary education by providing infrastructure facilities,
appointment of teachers.
Objectives
of RMSA
1. The scheme envisages achieving a gross enrolment
ratio of 75% from 52.26% in 2005-06 for classes IX-X within 5 years of its
implementation.
2. To improve the quality of education imparted at
secondary level by making all secondary schools conform to prescribed norms.
3. To increase the enrolment rate to 90% at
secondary and 75% at higher secondary stage.
4. To remove gender, socio-economic and disability
barriers.
5. To provide universal access to secondary level
education by 2017, i.e. by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan.
6. To enhance and universalize retention by 2020.
7. To provide a secondary school within a reachable
distance of any habitation, which should be 5 km for secondary schools and 7-10
km for higher secondary schools.
8. To provide access to secondary education with
special reference to economically weaker sections of the society, educationally
backward, girls, differently abled and other marginalized categories like SC,
ST, OBC and Minorities.
9. To upgrade Middle Schools into High Schools.
10. To strengthen existing secondary schools with
necessary infrastructure facilities.
Challenges
in achieving Secondary Education
Though enrolment of girls is perceived to be
complete and more so in urban areas, stakeholders covered acknowledged that enrolment
is lower in remote, rural areas and in conservative households as well as among
tribals.
The reasons for non- enrolment are:
- Lack of awareness among parents about the
importance and benefits of girls’ education.
- Lack of motivation and support from parents
due to their illiterate status and poverty.
- An emerging issue in girls’ discrimination
is the issue of eve-teasing outside the school.
- Student absenteeism is expressed as an
issue in the schools.
- Lack of money for bus fare in such cases,
the tribal school has assisted in paying the fare.
6. The constraints faced by teachers due to such
absenteeism include completing the syllabus on time and making the absentees
learn the missed portions.
- Poor
economic status of parents compels the children to take up employment and
contribute to family income rather than continue education.
- Lack
of motivation from teachers to children in continuing their education.
- Lack of parental involvement in the child’s progress in terms of
understanding their activities at school, follow up on home works
assigned, providing guidance and support.
Rashtriya Uchatar Shiksha Abhiyaan (RUSA)
The project was launched on 8th June 2013, it
was implemented by MHRD as a centrally sponsored scheme with matching
contribution from the State Government and Union Territories. It is proposed to
set eligibility criteria for States to achieve a high and sustained impact of
the project through monitoring and evaluation. The primary responsibility of
the monitoring will lie with the institution themselves. The State Government
and the Center through “The Project Appraisal Board” will monitor the project
annually.
The main component of the programme is to set up
new universities and upgrade existing autonomous colleges to universities. The
other attempt will be to convert colleges to cluster universities and set up
new model colleges. In order to enhance skill development, the existing central
scheme of Polytechnics has been subsumed within RUSA. A separate component to
synergise vocational education with higher education has also been included in
RUSA. Besides these, RUSA also supports reforming, restructuring and building
capacity of institutions in participating State.
Objectives of RUSA
1. To achieve the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER)
target of 25.2% by the end of 12th Plan and 32% by the end of 13th Plan.
2. To improve the overall quality of State
institutions by ensuring conformity to prescribed norms and standards and adopt accreditation
as a mandatory quality assurance framework.
3. To ensure transformative reforms in the state
higher education system by creating a facilitating institutional structure for
planning and monitoring at the state level, promoting autonomy in State
Universities and improving governance in institutions.
4. To ensure reforms in the affiliation, academic
and examination systems.
5. To ensure adequate availability of quality
faculty in all higher educational institutions and ensure capacity building at
all levels of employment.
6. To create an enabling atmosphere in the higher
educational institutions to devote themselves to research and innovations.
7. To expand the institutional base by creating
additional capacity in existing institutions and establishing new institutions,
in order to achieve enrolment targets.
8. To correct regional imbalances in access to
higher education by setting up institutions in un‐served and
underserved areas creating opportunities for students from rural areas to get
better access to better quality institutions.
9. To improve equity in higher education by
providing adequate opportunities of higher education to SC/ST, socially and
educationally backward classes; promote inclusion of women, minorities, and
differently abled persons.
10. To promote autonomy in State universities and
include governance in the institutions.
11. To identify and fill up the critical
infrastructure gaps in higher education by augmenting and supporting the
efforts of the State Governments.
Salient Features of RUSA
1. It would create new universities through
upgradation of existing autonomous colleges and conversion of colleges in a
cluster.
2. It would create new model degree colleges, new
professional colleges and provide infrastructural support to universities and
colleges.
3. Faculty recruitment support, faculty improvement
programmes and leadership development of educational administrators are also an
important part of the scheme.
4. A separate component to synergize vocational
education with higher education has also been included in RUSA.
5. It also supports reforming, restructuring and
building capacity of institutions in participating States.
6. It integrates the skill development efforts of
the government through optimum interventions.
7. It promotes healthy competition amongst States
and institutions to address various concerns regarding quality, research and
innovation.
8. It ensures governance, academic and examination
reforms and establishes backward and forward linkages between school education,
higher education and the job market.
Funding
system of RUSA
1. The central funding would be norm based and
outcome dependent.
2. Funds would flow from the Ministry of Human
Resource Development (MHRD) to universities and colleges, through the State
Governments.
3. Funding to the States would be made on the basis
of critical appraisal of State Higher Education Plans (SHEP).
4. SHEP should address each State’s strategy to
address issues of equity, access and excellence.
5. Each institution will have to prepare an
Institutional Development Plan (IDP) for all the components listed under the
Scheme.
6. State Higher Education Councils (SHEC) will have
to undertake planning and evaluation, in addition to other monitoring and
capacity building functions.
7. SHEC will also be responsible for advising the
states in ensuring a balanced development of the sector and prevent distortions
in terms of overcrowding and over commercialization.
Challenges
in achieving RUSA
Gender disparity: The National Sample
Survey Organisation’s most recent estimate show a Gross Enrollment Ratio of
15.8 percent for women against 22.8 percent for men. Except for education and
medicine, enrollment of boys is higher than girls in all other faculties.
Inadequate infrastructure: With rapid expansion, most of the
institutions are not coping up with the required infrastructure. This
deficiency has ultimately resulted in paper degree education with very low
level of employability of graduates which are being produced.
Low
industrial training: There is a need to support necessary infrastructure
within institutions as well as to promote institution industry interface by
involving industry in curriculum development, developing database of available
facilities across institutions.
Faculty
crunch: The growth in teaching faculty has not been kept in pace with the
growth of teaching institutions and enrollment, thus causing great imbalance
between teacher student ratio.
Decline
in research: Out of total enrollment, there is less than one percent
enrollment in research, against 86 percent in graduate, 12 percent postgraduate
and one percent in diploma and certificate courses. India’s global share of
scientific publications of 3.5 percent is very low as compared to China’s share
of more than 21 percent as estimated by Thomas and Reuters.
Large
affiliations: Affiliated colleges with 89 percent enrollment of total
students are main stay in the system of higher education as they contain bulk
of enrollment. Almost all the newly established colleges are affiliated to
State Universities, increasing their burden of affiliation system. Over
affiliation dilutes the focus on academic quality and research.
Integrated
education
Integrated
approach was first started in America in 1930. This approach was introduced in
India in 1960 by Batlibai. But this approach was not successful in India until
1986 when the new education policy was introduced. NCERT and DSERT took up this
approach more seriously. DIETs took up an in-service programme to train the
teachers in primary schools.
An
approach to integration that takes the individual needs of the special child
into full consideration may result in:
·
Physical
integration i.e., planning for the location of
the special programmes in schools buildings with regular education programmes.
·
Social
integration – it means planning for regular
personal interactions between students who have handicaps and those who do not.
·
Academic
integration: i.e., planning to ensure students
with and without handicaps simultaneously using school resources.
·
Societal integration
i.e., planning designed to enable students with moderate and sever handicaps to
work, live and spend leisure with their fellow non-handicapped citizens.
Integration
Means
·
Providing special
services within the regular school.
·
Supporting regular
teachers and administrators.
·
Having students with
disabilities follow the same schedule as non-disabled students.
·
Involving disabled
students in as many academic classes and extra-curricular activities as
possible including music, art, fieldtrips, assemblies and exercise.
·
Arranging for disabled
students to use library, playground and other facilities at the same time as
non-disabled students.
·
Encouraging, helping
and building relationships between disabled and non-disabled students.
·
Arranging for disabled
students to receive their education in regular community environments when
appropriate.
·
Teaching all children
to understand and accept human differences,
·
Providing appropriate
individualized programmes.
Types
of Integration Approach
These are 3 types of
Integration Approach
1. Resources
Approach
2. Itinerate
Approach
3. Cluster
Approach
Ø Resources Approach
o
Eight children with impairment are
grouped together and education is given before or after classroom in
consultation with general teacher. These children are taken to the resource
room for education depending upon their deficiencies and requirements.
Ø Itinerate Approach
o
Children from various classes are put
together in this system and education is given to them, by visiting Special
Educators. The class resource teacher is also consulted during Special
Education classes. The visiting teacher moves from one school to another and
should spend at least 150 minutes in the school, she visits.
Ø Cluster Approach
o
In this approach 42 days in-service
training is given to regular teachers to teach children with impairment of all
types.
Merits
of Integration
·
Children are not taught
in special schools; hence they have an opportunity to live with parents.
·
Children have the
chance to compete with normal children also.
·
They can show their
talent, through performance.
·
Also children are
provided opportunity to mix with other members of society and make adjustments
in society.
·
The feeling of
exceptionality can be removed.
Limitations/Demerits
of Integration
·
It is difficult to
teach different types of impaired children in regular classes.
·
Regular teachers can
teach only by normal methods for normal children but the exceptional child does
not benefit from this.
·
Teacher will look at
children with pity and just promote him.
·
Teacher may show
negligent attitude towards that child.
·
There is problem of
labelling.
·
The exceptional children
may not get facilities at a proper time.
Inclusive
Education
Inclusive
Education means welcoming all children, without discrimination, into regular or
ordinary schools. It refers to the process of educating all children in their
neighbourhood school, regardless of the nature of their disabilities. Students
participating in an inclusion program follow the same schedule as their
classmates and participate in age appropriate academic classes. They don’t
receive Special Education Services in separated or isolated places.
Social
inclusion provides a myriad of opportunities for students with and without
disabilities to interact in a mainstream environment. Students with
disabilities use the school library, playground and participate alongside with
their non-disabled peers in extra-curricular activities such as art, music,
gym, fieldtrips etc. Inclusion teaches all children to understand and accept
human differences and provides all students enhanced opportunities to learn
each other’s contribution; friendship between students with and without
disabilities becomes a possibility in a school that accepts inclusion students.
Inclusion
provides the appropriate support for everyone involved in the inclusion
process. Teachers are provided with time, training, teamwork, resources, and
strategies. No unreasonable demands are placed upon the teachers.
Problems
encountered in inclusive education
Indeed,
practical problems could be encountered while including children with diverse
educational needs. But often, the practical difficulties have more to do with
bringing attitudinal change and the organization of learning environments and
school activities, with the reallocation of money and resources than with the
needs of children.
Many
determinant factors affect and regulate the development of inclusion. Limited
understandings of the concept of disability, negative attitude towards persons
with disabilities and a hardened resistance to change are the major barriers
impeding Inclusive Education.
Regular
classroom teachers don’t perceive themselves as having the appropriate training
and skills to meet the instructional needs of students with disabilities.
Unfortunately, evaluation studies indicate that teachers don’t always have the
support they need to make inclusion successful.
In
some schools, regular teachers are asked to teach special needs students
without receiving any formal training as well as administrative assistance.
Without support, teachers who do not have sufficient background knowledge in
Special Education are at a loss.
Inclusive Education demands the class teacher to be innovative,
flexible, creative, ready to learn from the learners and capable of imitating
active learning. Generally, the
challenge towards inclusive education could emanate from different directions
such as attitudinal factors, rigid school system, and resistance to change,
lack of clear educational guideline, and fear of losing one’s job on the part
of special school/ teachers.
Advantages
of Inclusion
·
Reduce fear and to
build friendship, understanding, and respect. It reduces or eliminates the
stigma associated with disabilities as familiarity and tolerance increase.
·
The child without
disabilities learns to value the contributions of all children, despite and
disabling conditions.
·
It helps the mainstream
child to be tolerant of his weaknesses and appreciate his own strengths.
·
Involvement with
children with special needs can build positive character traits, such as
patience empathy, and acceptance.
·
Full inclusion prepares
all children for the roles they will play in mainstream society after finishing
their schooling.
Components
of Successful Inclusion
1. Establishing
a philosophy that supports appropriate inclusionary practices
2. Planning
effectively for inclusion
3. Involving
the top administrator as a change agent
4. Involving
parents
5. Gaining
outside support
6. Developing
the disability awareness among staff and students
7. Initiating extra-curricular activities and out of school
inclusive programme
8. Providing
structure and support for collaboration
9. Making
adaptations
Education for
collective living and peaceful living: Four pillars of education as viewed by
Delor’s Commission Report.
The Delor’s Report was
a report created by the Delor’s Commission in 1996. It
proposed an integrated vision of education based on two key concepts,
‘learning throughout life’ and the four pillars of learning, to know, to do, to
be and to live together. It was not in itself a blueprint for educational
reform, but rather a basis for reflection and debate about what choices should
be made in formulating policies. The report
argued that choices about education were determined by choices about what kind
of society we wished to live in. Beyond education’s immediate functionality, it
considered the formation of the whole person to be an essential part of
education’s purpose.
The members of this commission
comprised of 14 members from different countries like China, France, Japan,
Poland etc including Dr. Karan Singh from India. The report of this commission
was published in 1996 by the name of ‘learning: The Treasure Within’
Tensions to be
overcome
The
commission identifies a few tensions that it regards will be central to the
problems of the 21st century. The Delor’s Report identified a number of
tensions generated by technological, economic and social change.
They are
- Tension between the global
and the local, i.e., local people need to become world citizens without
losing their roots
- while culture is steadily
being globalised, this development being partial is creating tension
between the universal and the individual
- The third tension is pretty
familiar to Indians the tension between tradition and modernity. Whereas
for some the process of change is slow, for others it is not so, thereby
creating problems of adaptation
- the need to balance between
impatient cries for quick answers to peoples' problems and a patient,
concerted, negotiated strategy of reform results in the problem/tension
between long-term and short-term considerations
- Tension arising out of human
desire to compete and excel and the concern for equality of opportunity
- The tension between the extraordinary
expansion of knowledge and the capacity of human beings to assimilate it
- Lastly, another perennial
factor the tension between the spiritual and the material.
These seven tensions remain
useful perspectives from which to view the current dynamics of social
transformation.
Major
pointers and recommendations.
- Education
is declared to be "the principal means available to foster a deeper
and more harmonious form of human development and thereby to reduce
poverty, exclusion, ignorance, oppression and war
- Delor’s
regards "education as an ongoing process of improving knowledge and
skills, it is also perhaps primarily an exceptional means of bringing
about personal development and building relationships among individuals,
groups and nations."
- The
commission defines education, once again, as “a social experience through
which children learn about themselves, develop interpersonal skills and
acquire basic knowledge and skills’’.
- Delor’s
repeats the concept of broadening international cooperation in the global
village
- Education
for conscious and active citizenship must begin at school. Democratic
participation should be encouraged by instructions and practices adapted
to a media and information society
- It’s
the role of education to provide children and adults with the cultural
background that will enable them to understand the changes taking place.
- Commission
stress the need of improvement, general availability and strengthening of
Basic Education-A requirement which is valid for all countries.
The Four Pillars of
Education
One
of the most influential concepts of the 1996 Delor’s Report was that of the
four pillars of learning.
- Learning
to know
- Learning
to do
- Learning
to be
- Learning
to live together
Learning to know
Ø In
the opinion of Delor’s commission, to understand the rapid changes occurring
due to scientific progress and social processes, and cultivate skill to work
accordingly, the following will be necessitated in the twenty-first century-
- Basic
education should be expanded
- Specific
education should follow basic education.
Ø Commission
suggest that learning to know can be achieved by combining a sufficiently broad
general knowledge with the opportunity to work in depth on a small number of
subjects.
Ø In
the view of the commission, the children should be trained in learning methods,
especially in focusing concentration, memorizing and thinking, and this task
should be started right from infancy. In the view of the commission, these are
the methods of learning which can help learn lifelong.
Learning to do
Ø The
provision for work experience and social service will have to be compulsorily
made along with formal education
Ø Peoples
should be given opportunities to learn life long. For life long learning, the
societies have to be transformed into ‘learning societies’. By ‘learning
societies’ the commission means such societies in which are given different
opportunities for obtaining knowledge and skill in social, cultural and
economic field, also with imparting of formal education.
Ø Taking
part in real-time activities in these fields will help develop common sense,
decision-making power and leadership skill. And the most important thing is
that they will inculcate far-sight and insight
Learning
to be
Ø The
aptitude and latent talents of children and peoples can be brought out.
Ø Children’s
personality can be fully developed.
Ø Physical
abilities and mental abilities (memory, reasoning, and imagination) can be
developed in children
Ø Social
skills and aesthetic sense and communication skills of children can be
cultivated together with leadership ability. In the opinion of the commission,
only such people will be able to guard themselves in the twenty-first century
Learning
to live together
Ø In
the commission’s view, the first thing for this is to cultivate the ability to
understand one another. Unless all people are able to understand others, they
will not like to live together. Our modern needs have so expanded today that we
are no more self-dependent even in our family, social and national matters, and
leave alone international level.
Ø Education
should train children to understand others
Ø Children
should be trained to cooperate with one another for the attainment of goals
right from the beginning.
Ø The
commission has explained that when people come nearer, some conflicts can arise
among them. Therefore, education will have to train them in subsidizing
conflicts, and they will have to be trained in eradicating conflicts on the
bases of human values.
Ø The
commission has clarified that now all nations of the world will have to resolve
their mutual differences, will have to sow the seeds of peace instead of that
of war, and will have to solve one another’s problems in mutual cooperation.
Therefore, it is essential that children be trained to live together right from
the beginning and be taught a lesson of peace and harmony in place of conflict
and struggle
