Inclusive Education and Early Intervention
Programme
B y Anthony M. Wanjohi
1.0 Introduction
“Disability is not
Inability” these are words of encouragement for those who perceive that people
with physical challenges are helpless and cannot do what others do without the
challenges. The debate of including them into society without being stigmatized
has been discussed internationally by the UDHR (1949), UNGAC (1959) and the UNCRC
(1989) all acknowledged education as a human right and enacted some
of the articles to include them in every social sector. This paper explores the
challenges facing inclusive education in regular schools. The paper is
organized into the following sections: Background to the study, which has
two parts, namely the rationale for inclusive education and types of inclusive
education. This section is followed by challenges facing inclusive education.
These challenges are each discussed briefly.
2.0 Background Information
Inclusion in the context of education is the practice, in which
students with special educational needs spend most or all of their time with
non-disabled students. UNESCO, 2001 developed a language of inclusion for the
disabled into the system of education by stating the following:
· Inclusive education starts
from the belief that the right to education is a basic human
right and the foundation for a more just society
· Inclusive education takes
the Education for All (EFA) agenda forward by finding was of enabling
schools to serve all children in their communities as part of
an inclusive education system.
· Inclusive education is
concerned with all learners, with a focus on those who have
traditionally been excluded from educational opportunities – such as learners
with special needs and disabilities, children from ethnic and linguistic
minorities
Inclusion is about the child’s right to participate and the
school’s duty to accept the child and to rejects the use of special schools or
classrooms to separate students with disabilities from students without
disabilities. A premium is placed upon full participation by students with
disabilities and upon respect for their social, civil, and educational rights.
Inclusive schools no
longer distinguish between "general education" and "special
education" programs; instead, the school is restructured so that all
students learn together.(Scheyes et
al,1996).
All students can learn
and benefit from education and schools should adapt to the needs of students,
rather than students adapting to the needs of the school. Individual
differences between students are a source of richness and diversity, and not a
problem. The diversity of needs and pace of development of students are
addressed through a wide and flexible range of responses (so long as those
responses do not include removing a student with a disability from a general
education classroom).
Inclusive education is a
process of removing barriers and enabling all students, including previously
excluded groups, to learn and participate effectively within general school
systems.
2.1 Rationale for Inclusion
The 1983 World Program of Action Concerning
Disabled Persons states under Article 120 that all Member States agree that
education for persons with disabilities should be carried out, as far as
possible, within the general school system
A second key argument is
that everybody benefits from inclusion. Advocates say that there are many
children and young people who don't fit in (or feel as though they don't), and
that a school that fully includes all disabled students feels welcoming to all.
Moreover, at least one author has studied the impact a diversified student body
has on the general education population and has concluded that students with
mental retardation who spend time among their peers show an increase in social
skills and academic proficiency (Trainer,1991).
2.2 Types of inclusive
Education
Inclusive education is
divided into two mainly Regular inclusion or partial inclusion and Full
inclusion.
Regular or partial
inclusion: students with special
needs are educated in regular classes for nearly all of the day, or at least
for more than half of the day. Whenever possible, the students receive any
additional help or special instruction in the general classroom. Most
specialized services are provided outside a regular classroom, particularly if
these services require special equipment or might be disruptive to the rest of
the class (such as speech therapy), and students are pulled out for these
services. The student occasionally leaves the regular classroom to attend
smaller, more intensive instructional sessions in a resource room, or to
receive other related services, such as speech and language therapy,
occupational and/or physical therapy, and social work. This approach can be
very similar to many mainstreaming practices. (Bowe ,2005)
Full inclusion: It is the complete integration of the student
with a special need into the general education classroom. The student receives
all special services in the same general education classroom as all other
students. This is very common with students whose needs are easily met in a
classroom, such as a modification that allows the student more time to complete
written assignments. Here the students classified as disabled remain in general
classrooms virtually all the time. . (Bowe, 2005) Related services are provided
via "push in," meaning that professionals enter the classroom and
deliver assistance there
Schools that practice
full inclusion for all students have no separate special education classes.
However, full inclusion of all students, regardless of their particular needs,
is a controversial practice, and it is not widely applied (Hastings,2003). It is more common for local educational agencies to
provide a variety of settings, from special classrooms to mainstreaming to
inclusion, and to assign students to the system that seems most likely to help
the student achieve his or her individual educational goals.
3.0 Challenges facing Inclusive Education
Today, the debate about inclusive education has been lessened and
the society is trying to digest into the system the involvement of the
physically challenged students the normal system of education. They are also
trying to fight to stigmatization in order to create an opportunity for all in
education. Despite all these efforts there are still some challenges that
affect inclusive education in our society from international level to local
level. This section briefly examines these challenges.
3.1 Beliefs / Attitude
These are perceptions of
the people in our environment. Responses to this inhuman treatment often
elicited a charitable or protective response which sometimes led to
improvements in the material circumstances of disabled people. Disabled people were
objects of charity or asylum and subjected to patronising attitudes
based on the non-disabled person’s view of them as not fully human or as
incapable of living ordinary lives They can
further be classified as:
a) Society
It was believed that
disabled people brought bad luck because they had been cursed or had had a
spell placed upon them by witchcraft. They were often viewed as not fully human
or possessed by evil spirits. This made it easy to make fun of or ridicule
them. They became the butt of jokes and symbols for all the ills of the world.
Clowns, court jesters and ‘freak shows’ are illustrations of this.
There are many cultural and literary manifestations of this
thinking which are still being reinforced in myths, legend or literature.
Even modern films, comics and television programmes draw upon and reinforce
these negative stereotypes. Stereotypes are bundles of negative and untrue
perceptions which often precondition how people treat and respond to disabled
people
b) Economically
Financing and support of educational services for students with
special needs is a primary concern for all countries, regardless of available
resources. Yet a growing body of research asserts that inclusive education is
not only cost efficient, but also cost effective, and that equity is the way to
excellence. The research seems to promise increased achievement and performance
for all learners. Within education, countries are increasingly realising the inefficiency of multiple systems of
administration, organisational structures
and services, and that special schools are a financially unrealistic option.
For example (OECD, 1994) report estimates that the average cost of putting
students with special educational needs in segregated placements is seven to
nine times higher than educating them in general classrooms.
c) Teachers
According to Agbenyega (2006),
many regular education teachers who feel unprepared and fearful to
work with learners with disabilities in regular classes display
frustration, anger and negative attitude
toward inclusive education because they believe it could lead to
lower academic standards (Gary, 1997; Tiegerman-Farber,1998).
Additionally, access to resources and specialist support affects teacher
confidence and attitudes toward inclusive education (Bennett,
1997; Katzenmeyer, 1997). The teachers’ beliefs
about inclusion suggest that they do not regard students with disabilities,
particularly those with sensory impairments as belonging in regular classes and
would rather prefer them being educated in existing special schools, Teachers
also believed that including students with disabilities limits the amount of
teaching work they could do thereby resulting in incompletion of the
syllabuses, teachers also believed that if students with disabilities were
included in regular classes it would affect the academic performance of their
peers without disabilities, Teachers perceived that their professional
knowledge and skills were inadequate to effectively teach students with
disabilities in regular schools. Further, the teachers expressed fear and
concern, that because they do not have the required knowledge and expertise to
teach students with disabilities who are included in their regular classes; it
is contributing to a reduction in the academic success of their schools.
3.2 Inadequate resources
Apart from teachers’ negative beliefs about inclusion and concern
for their professional competency to practice inclusive education,
resource issues also drew much concern for both teacher groups. Resource issues
addressed physical aspects such as inaccessible classrooms to students in a
wheel chair, overcrowded classrooms; materials such as Braille and large
prints: Further, teachers expressed concern about the lack of support from
professionals with expertise such as peripatetic teachers or those with
expertise in sign language and Braille as well as general
special education experts: Teachers overwhelmingly believe
that inclusive education is impossible without addressing their
needs for specialist resources. Overall belief is that without sufficient
resources and support inclusive education was not possible and
doomed:
3.3 Inadequate Training
Qualified
teachers know that classroom needs must
be approached “from a
curricular standpoint”, in which difficulties are defined depending on each specific
task and activity, and on classroom conditions.
Most teachers are not qualified to handle the students with physical
challenges.
3.4 Learner Based Challenges
Ordinary learners and
challenged learners are different modes of understanding thus making one ahead
of the other. The challenged students are not fast learners thus need more
attention when handling them.
Others.
Inaccessible
environment, lack of support from teachers and school make most of the learners
repeat or drop out of school thus not boosting their morale.
4.0 Conclusion
Even though we still have a long way to go, Inclusive Education is POSSIBLE. When all participants, Governments, NGOs, teachers, students, parents and communities take
action and join their efforts, the goal of achieving equality of access and
opportunities for children/youth with visual
impairment can start to become a reality.
References
Agbenyega, J. (2006). Examining Teachers’ Concerns and Attitudes to
Inclusive
Education In Ghana.
Bowe, F.(2005). Making Inclusion Work. Merrill
Education/Prentice Hall.
Hastings. R.P. & Oakford,
S. (2003). Student teachers' attitudes toward the inclusion of
children with
special needs. Educational Psychology, page 23, 87-95
Kavale, K.A. (2002).
Mainstreaming to full inclusion: From orthogenesis to pathogenesis
of an
idea. International Journal of Disability, Development, and Education, page
49, 201-214.
Praisner, C. L. (2003). Attitudes
of elementary school principals toward the inclusion of
students with
disabilities. Exceptional Children, page 69, 135-145.
Scheyer et
al. (1996). The Inclusive
Classroom Teacher. Created Materials, Inc.
Trainer, M. (1991). Differences
in common: Straight talk on mental retardation, Down
Syndrome, and
life. Rockville, MD" Woodbine house.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1949)
UNESCO (1994). Salamanca Statement
and Framework for Action. (Piccione,2000 )
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).
Suggested Citation in
APA
KENPRO (2010).Inclusive education and early
intervention programme. KENPRo pUblications.Available online
at http://www.kenpro.org/papers/inclusive-education.htmInclusive Education and Early Intervention Programme
B y Anthony M. Wanjohi
1.0 Introduction
“Disability is not
Inability” these are words of encouragement for those who perceive that people
with physical challenges are helpless and cannot do what others do without the
challenges. The debate of including them into society without being stigmatized
has been discussed internationally by the UDHR (1949), UNGAC (1959) and the
UNCRC (1989) all acknowledged education as a human right and enacted
some of the articles to include them in every social sector. This paper
explores the challenges facing inclusive education in regular schools. The
paper is organized into the following sections: Background to the study,
which has two parts, namely the rationale for inclusive education and types of
inclusive education. This section is followed by challenges facing inclusive
education. These challenges are each discussed briefly.
2.0 Background Information
Inclusion in the context of education is the practice, in which
students with special educational needs spend most or all of their time with
non-disabled students. UNESCO, 2001 developed a language of inclusion for the
disabled into the system of education by stating the following:
· Inclusive education starts from the
belief that the right to education is a basic human right and
the foundation for a more just
society.
· Inclusive education takes
the Education for All (EFA) agenda forward by finding was of enabling
schools to serve all children in their communities as part of
an inclusive education system.
· Inclusive education is concerned
with all learners, with a focus on those who have
traditionally been excluded from educational opportunities – such as learners
with special needs and disabilities, children from ethnic and linguistic
minorities
Inclusion is about the child’s right to participate and the
school’s duty to accept the child and to rejects the use of special schools or
classrooms to separate students with disabilities from students without
disabilities. A premium is placed upon full participation by students with
disabilities and upon respect for their social, civil, and educational rights.
Inclusive schools no
longer distinguish between "general education" and "special
education" programs; instead, the school is restructured so that all
students learn together.(Scheyes et
al,1996).
All students can learn
and benefit from education and schools should adapt to the needs of students,
rather than students adapting to the needs of the school. Individual
differences between students are a source of richness and diversity, and not a
problem. The diversity of needs and pace of development of students are
addressed through a wide and flexible range of responses (so long as those
responses do not include removing a student with a disability from a general
education classroom).
Inclusive education is a
process of removing barriers and enabling all students, including previously
excluded groups, to learn and participate effectively within general school
systems.
2.1 Rationale for Inclusion
The 1983 World Program
of Action Concerning Disabled Persons states under Article 120 that all Member
States agree that education for persons with disabilities should be carried
out, as far as possible, within the general school system
A few years
later, the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the
Child acknowledged the special needs of children
with disabilities, and stated that these
children must be guaranteed “effective access to
education in a manner conducive to
the child achieving the fullest possible social integration and
individual development...”
Such notion was further
asserted by the 1990 World Declaration on Education for All, by
the 1993 Standard Rules on the
Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities,
and by the 1994 UNESCO meeting (Piccione, 2000).
A second key argument is
that everybody benefits from inclusion. Advocates say that there are many
children and young people who don't fit in (or feel as though they don't), and
that a school that fully includes all disabled students feels welcoming to all.
Moreover, at least one author has studied the impact a diversified student body
has on the general education population and has concluded that students with
mental retardation who spend time among their peers show an increase in social
skills and academic proficiency (Trainer,1991).
2.2 Types of inclusive
Education
Inclusive education is
divided into two mainly Regular inclusion or partial inclusion and Full
inclusion.
Regular or partial
inclusion: students with special
needs are educated in regular classes for nearly all of the day, or at least
for more than half of the day. Whenever possible, the students receive any
additional help or special instruction in the general classroom. Most
specialized services are provided outside a regular classroom, particularly if
these services require special equipment or might be disruptive to the rest of
the class (such as speech therapy), and students are pulled out for these
services. The student occasionally leaves the regular classroom to attend
smaller, more intensive instructional sessions in a resource room, or to
receive other related services, such as speech and language therapy,
occupational and/or physical therapy, and social work. This approach can be very
similar to many mainstreaming practices. (Bowe ,2005)
Full inclusion: It is the complete integration of the student
with a special need into the general education classroom. The student receives
all special services in the same general education classroom as all other
students. This is very common with students whose needs are easily met in a
classroom, such as a modification that allows the student more time to complete
written assignments. Here the students classified as disabled remain in general
classrooms virtually all the time. . (Bowe, 2005) Related services are provided
via "push in," meaning that professionals enter the classroom and
deliver assistance there
Schools that practice
full inclusion for all students have no separate special education classes.
However, full inclusion of all students, regardless of their particular needs,
is a controversial practice, and it is not widely applied (Hastings,2003). It is more common for local educational agencies to
provide a variety of settings, from special classrooms to mainstreaming to
inclusion, and to assign students to the system that seems most likely to help
the student achieve his or her individual educational goals.
3.0 Challenges facing Inclusive Education
Today, the debate about inclusive education has been lessened and
the society is trying to digest into the system the involvement of the
physically challenged students the normal system of education. They are also
trying to fight to stigmatization in order to create an opportunity for all in
education. Despite all these efforts there are still some challenges that
affect inclusive education in our society from international level to local
level. This section briefly examines these challenges.
3.1 Beliefs / Attitude
These are perceptions of
the people in our environment. Responses to this inhuman treatment often
elicited a charitable or protective response which sometimes led to
improvements in the material circumstances of disabled people. Disabled people were
objects of charity or asylum and subjected to patronising attitudes
based on the non-disabled person’s view of them as not fully human or as
incapable of living ordinary lives They can
further be classified as:
a) Society
It was believed that
disabled people brought bad luck because they had been cursed or had had a
spell placed upon them by witchcraft. They were often viewed as not fully human
or possessed by evil spirits. This made it easy to make fun of or ridicule
them. They became the butt of jokes and symbols for all the ills of the world.
Clowns, court jesters and ‘freak shows’ are illustrations of this.
There are many cultural and literary manifestations of this
thinking which are still being reinforced in myths, legend or literature.
Even modern films, comics and television programmes draw upon and reinforce
these negative stereotypes. Stereotypes are bundles of negative and untrue
perceptions which often precondition how people treat and respond to disabled
people
b) Economically
Financing and support of educational services for students with
special needs is a primary concern for all countries, regardless of available
resources. Yet a growing body of research asserts that inclusive education is
not only cost efficient, but also cost effective, and that equity is the way to
excellence. The research seems to promise increased achievement and performance
for all learners. Within education, countries are increasingly realising the inefficiency of multiple systems of
administration, organisational structures
and services, and that special schools are a financially unrealistic option.
For example (OECD, 1994) report estimates that the average cost of putting
students with special educational needs in segregated placements is seven to
nine times higher than educating them in general classrooms.
c) Teachers
According to Agbenyega (2006),
many regular education teachers who feel unprepared and fearful to
work with learners with disabilities in regular classes display
frustration, anger and negative attitude
toward inclusive education because they believe it could lead to
lower academic standards (Gary, 1997; Tiegerman-Farber,1998).
Additionally, access to resources and specialist support affects teacher
confidence and attitudes toward inclusive education (Bennett,
1997; Katzenmeyer, 1997). The teachers’ beliefs
about inclusion suggest that they do not regard students with disabilities,
particularly those with sensory impairments as belonging in regular classes and
would rather prefer them being educated in existing special schools, Teachers
also believed that including students with disabilities limits the amount of
teaching work they could do thereby resulting in incompletion of the
syllabuses, teachers also believed that if students with disabilities were
included in regular classes it would affect the academic performance of their
peers without disabilities, Teachers perceived that their professional
knowledge and skills were inadequate to effectively teach students with
disabilities in regular schools. Further, the teachers expressed fear and
concern, that because they do not have the required knowledge and expertise to
teach students with disabilities who are included in their regular classes; it
is contributing to a reduction in the academic success of their schools.
3.2 Inadequate resources
Apart from teachers’ negative beliefs about inclusion and concern
for their professional competency to practice inclusive education,
resource issues also drew much concern for both teacher groups. Resource issues
addressed physical aspects such as inaccessible classrooms to students in a
wheel chair, overcrowded classrooms; materials such as Braille and large
prints: Further, teachers expressed concern about the lack of support from
professionals with expertise such as peripatetic teachers or those with
expertise in sign language and Braille as well as general
special education experts: Teachers overwhelmingly believe
that inclusive education is impossible without addressing their
needs for specialist resources. Overall belief is that without sufficient
resources and support inclusive education was not possible and
doomed:
3.3 Inadequate Training
Qualified
teachers know that classroom needs must
be approached “from a
curricular standpoint”, in which difficulties are defined depending on each specific
task and activity, and on classroom conditions.
Most teachers are not qualified to handle the students with physical
challenges.
3.4 Learner Based Challenges
Ordinary learners and
challenged learners are different modes of understanding thus making one ahead
of the other. The challenged students are not fast learners thus need more
attention when handling them.
Others.
Inaccessible
environment, lack of support from teachers and school make most of the learners
repeat or drop out of school thus not boosting their morale.
4.0 Conclusion
Even though we still have a long way to go, Inclusive Education is POSSIBLE. When all participants, Governments, NGOs, teachers, students, parents and communities take
action and join their efforts, the goal of achieving equality of access and
opportunities for children/youth with visual
impairment can start to become a reality.
References
Agbenyega, J. (2006). Examining Teachers’ Concerns and Attitudes to Inclusive
Education In Ghana.
Bowe, F.(2005). Making Inclusion Work. Merrill
Education/Prentice Hall.
Hastings. R.P. & Oakford,
S. (2003). Student teachers' attitudes toward the inclusion of
children with
special needs. Educational Psychology, page 23, 87-95
Kavale, K.A. (2002).
Mainstreaming to full inclusion: From orthogenesis to pathogenesis
of an
idea. International Journal of Disability, Development, and Education, page
49, 201-214.
Praisner, C. L. (2003). Attitudes
of elementary school principals toward the inclusion of
students with
disabilities. Exceptional Children, page 69, 135-145.
Scheyer et
al. (1996). The Inclusive
Classroom Teacher. Created Materials, Inc.
Trainer, M. (1991). Differences
in common: Straight talk on mental retardation, Down
Syndrome, and
life. Rockville, MD" Woodbine house.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1949)
UNESCO (1994). Salamanca Statement
and Framework for Action. (Piccione,2000 )
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).
Suggested Citation in
APA
Wanjohi, A.M. (2010).Inclusive education and early intervention
programme. KENPRO Publications.Available online at http://www.kenpro.org/papers/inclusive-education.htm
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