Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Unit II Educational demands of individuals and diverse communities


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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:
  1. Lack of awareness among parents about the importance and benefits of girls’ education.
  2. Lack of motivation and support from parents due to their illiterate status and poverty.
  3. An emerging issue in girls’ discrimination is the issue of eve-teasing outside the school.
  4. Student absenteeism is expressed as an issue in the schools.
  5. 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.
  1. Poor economic status of parents compels the children to take up employment and contribute to family income rather than continue education.
  2. Lack of motivation from teachers to children in continuing their education.
  3.  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 unserved 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 technologicaleconomic and social change.  They are
  1. Tension between the global and the local, i.e., local people need to become world citizens without losing their roots
  2. while culture is steadily being globalised, this development being partial is creating tension between the universal and the individual
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. Tension arising out of human desire to compete and excel and the concern for equality of opportunity
  6. The tension between the extraordinary expansion of knowledge and the capacity of human beings to assimilate it
  7. 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. 
  1. Learning to know
  2. Learning to do
  3. Learning to be
  4. 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-
  1. Basic education should be expanded
  2. 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