What are the Major Types Barriers in Inclusive Education?
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What are the Major Types Barriers in Inclusive Education?
According to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
“Inclusive education is the most effective way to give all children a fair chance to go to school, learn and develop the skills they need to thrive.”
Inclusion means the state of being included. The term is understood as including everyone by giving equal access and opportunities to all without any discrimination whether it is based on their gender, race, ability, or sexuality. It is the act of meeting the academic and social needs of all students regardless of how or who they are. Those children with disability and those without have equal rights of education. It creates a barrier free environment in schools by including all students and providing equal opportunities to everyone.
Definitions of Inclusive Education
1). According to Stephan and Blackhurst, “Inclusive Education is a set of values, principles and practices that seeks more effective and meaningful education for all students, regardless of whether they have exceptionality labels or not.”
2). Advani and Chadha stated, “Inclusive Education describes the restructuring of special education to permit all or most students to be integrated in mainstream classes through reorganisation and instruction innovations (e.g., cooperative learning, collaborative consultation and team teaching)”.
3). Uppal and Dey described, “Inclusive Education aims to provide a favorable setting for achieving equal opportunity and full participation for all, thus bringing children with special needs well within the preview of mainstream education. It recognizes the diverse needs of the students and ensures equality education to all through appropriate curricula, teaching strategies, support services and partnership with a community and parents. In simple words, it means that all children with or without disabilities learn together.”
4). According to Stainback and Stainback, “Inclusive Education is the implementation of policy and process that allows all children to participate in all programmes. Policy means that disabled children should be accepted without any restrictions in all the educational programmes meant for other children. The process of inclusion denotes the ways in the system makes itself welcoming to all. Inclusive Education is nothing but making the programme for disabled children as an integral part of the general educational system rather than a system within general education.”
Types of Barriers in Inclusive Education
The various types of barriers that occurs in inclusive education are:
1). Discrimination
Many people do not look or interact with disabled people in a positive way. They have a negative approach towards disabled people and often leads to their discrimination. Many times persons with disability are ignored, considered worthless or to be lacking skills for them to be educated. Students with disabilities may feel left out by their peers and feel they aren’t as good as them.
2). Accessibility
Persons with disabilities often have problems accessing many facilities due to their condition. From public transports to the way of classroom, these students face a lot of difficulty. Many places in the school itself is inaccessible by such students due to their disability and lack the education they deserve.
3). Lack of Training
Every children is different and teaching students with varying abilities and different learning styles requires training. Teachers attitudes towards students with disabilities causes a major constraint in inclusive education. If a teacher’s attitude is negative towards such students they lack the confidence and motivation to study. This happens due to inadequate training of teachers in such issues.
These are few of the barriers faced during inclusive education which should be taken into consideration on overcoming it.
