Inclusive Education1

EDUCATION 1

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

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Inclusive Education

According to Waitoller & Artiles (2013), inclusive education aims to address the

educational needs of the children who have special needs and with a particular focus on those

that are at a higher risk of being excluded or isolated in the regular learning system. The guiding

philosophy and principle behind the inclusive education are to enhance learning opportunity for

all the children to have equal treatment, learn, and participate regardless of their physical or

mental abilities. Despite low awareness of inclusive education throughout most schools in the

many countries, most institutions are somehow skeptical on the issue of children with different

capabilities learning in the same classroom under the same directorship of one teacher. In an

inclusive education system, however, students are expected to interact, learn and participate all

programs of the classroom and in co-curriculum activities together without segregating them in

terms of mental sharpness, physical fitness or any other biological disorder.

History of inclusive education

The history of inclusive education in the world can be attributed as far back as 19th

century when most of the nations came to the realization of the increasing number of children

with development disability and the need to safeguard their future. According to Shaw (2014),

before this time many countries widely believed that children that are living in any form of

development disability could not learn. Many governments, therefore, could not accept the

responsibilities of putting these children through an education system with a view that nothing

would be accomplished by education them. However, with an understanding of the potential of

these children, parents responded by coming up with their private structures, schools, in places

like the churches where their sons and daughters could learn basic formal education and grow.

The historical perspective of inclusive education is different from one country to another.

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U.K. history of inclusive education

The school system in the United Kingdom has evolved since the 1880s guided by

constitutional amendments that ensure fairer term for providing sustainable education to its

population. Before the 1990s, though most countries in U.K. did not practice inclusive education,

they emphasized and made it mandatory for children between the ages of 5-10 years to go to

school. This compulsory schooling was not inclusive of children living with any form of

disability. Besides, the education funds were provided by the government on the basis of merit

and performance which made most of the teachers to concentrate on the brighter students. This

consequently led to the refusal of schools to admit children who were 'less promising,' children

with disabilities. Other than U.K, France also advocated for a birth I.Q test in the year 1912

which would determine which children are fit for education placement. This segregation lasted

until 1978 when separation of the students with the disability from those without was banned,

and education mainstreaming was introduced.

U.S. history of inclusive education

Commenting on the United States historical perspective of inclusive education, Hall &

Meyer (2003), argue that the United Nations education system has gone through significant

changes to accommodate the needs of children with disabilities. Before 1975, most of the

institutions in U.S. did not pay much attention to providing general education environment for

students with disabilities. Only with the implementation of the public act that provided equal

education opportunities for all handicapped children, that students have been equally represented

in the general learning system with much support to enable similar achievement between the

various categories of children. However, most education stakeholders found this system in the

United States being insufficiently inclusive and did not engage the disabled children sufficiently.

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Reynolds & Walberg (1987), argued that with the increasing number of learners in the United

States, the needs were widely varying and educational models should be developed to go beyond

the mere modification and accommodation of disabled children in the mainstream education

system.

S.A history of inclusive education

Since the establishment of democracy in South Africa in 1994, the school system has

received much radicle overhaul of education policies from the former apartheid framework

aiming to provide all the citizens with an equal base of treatment when accessing education

services. The inclusive learning framework can be traced from the enactment of a constitutional

act No. 108 of 1996 which provided that all children who have reached the school-going age

should be absorbed in the government established institutions and receive equal treatments. The

South Africa education system grafted a guideline which could be used by the teachers and

school managers in planning the methods of teaching to sufficiently meet the expectations of the

diverse range of students. Consequently, the curriculum has been changed to address the specific

needs of every learner in a classroom set up and at the same time ensure the lesson contents are

significant for all groups of students (Wildeman & Nomdo, 2007).

The barriers to inclusive education

Why do we not yet have an inclusive education system? Provision of learning service to a

large pool of students with mild development disabilities has become a topic of primary interest

in most schools. In most cases, the rule governing the provision of education to children living

with various forms of disability requires that special education and attention should be provided

to disabled students in a well restrictive environment.

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Research conducted by Baker & Zigmond (1990), to assess the willingness of educators

to accept special needs students revealed that most of them are not eager to allow these students

to get into classrooms and mix with others. They hold various reservations such as; the specials

needs student will not be able to capture as fast as the others and consequently dragging the

brighter students behind. Secondly, educators felt they lacked sufficient training to handle these

particular cases. With this resistance from various stakeholders, many berries exist for both the

teachers and the students.

Barriers to inclusive education for teachers

With no doubts, teachers are the major players in the provision of education in any

system that the students are engaged in. They form a fundamental basis which the knowledge can

be dispensed to students that seemingly performing minimally and the highly promising students

within the same learning environment. These core principles in education can facilitate or haunt

the implementation ability of inclusive learning in various ways.

First, a teacher can present a barrier to inclusive education if they do not possess the

sufficient and divergent skill to train both disabled and healthy children in the same environment.

For the typical children, mode of delivery would be relatively straight forward and well-

structured unlike the case of children that are facing development disability who would require a

more one-on-one interaction to capture a concept from the teacher. This barrier can be inflated in

case the teacher feels the less able children are a burden due to constant repletion of a concept

before they are at par with other classmates. Besides, this uneven distribution of instructions in

the same general classroom makes the teachers to have a negative view of the disabled children

forcing the same to withdraw their attention and focus on sharp students.

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Secondly, demeaning attitude by both education instructors and teachers has contributed

significantly to the failure of inclusive learning. According to research conducted in Kansas

(1995), about the reality of perception on disability, found out that the societal attitude is the

greatest barrier that has caused many educators to hold bad attitude towards disabled learners.

This negative attitude can take many forms such as traditional prejudice, lack of awareness of the

need to provide sustainable education to the handicapped children, and social discrimination

during children playtime and participation in class sessions. Concerning the disabled children,

some institution in various regions still hold believes that providing education to disabled

children is pointless which significantly play a part is shaping the mental preparedness of a

teacher when interacting with diverse groups of learners.

Thirdly, lack of cooperation between the teachers and other stakeholders can be a major

impediment to the success of inclusive learning. Open communication between the teacher,

parents, other staffs and the students is the key to success in understanding every set of behavior

and how to handle different students while in the school environment. The teacher's effort to

bridge this communication gap is desired for inclusive learning to run smoothly. Without well-

structured meetings to develop teaching plans that can identify, accommodate, modify, and meet

the specific requirement of each student, the role of the teacher in inclusive learning will have

failed. Besides, this same cooperation would enable the parent to put emphasis on the key point

that the teachers have advised them to follow up to make their children understand better.

Finally, despite contributing to hindrances that face inclusive education, teachers also can

be victimized by the inclusive system. Owing to the fact that inclusive system will incorporate all

sorts of students with mild behaviors and capability poses a threat to an instructor in controlling

the enormous crowd of students. In most of the cases when some the students have a mental

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disability, the teacher might have to face the challenge of separating classroom and break-time

burying which considerably increases the risk of being hurt if the mental condition of the student

is unbearably severe. This barrier forces the teachers to avoid teaching in schools that have an

inclusive learning system leading to the lack of teaching staff for such environments.

Barriers to inclusive education for students

In every education system, students are the primary focus. All the regulation made

concerning the education are tailored to the interest of the student that undoubtedly make them

the key subject in the implementation and success of and inclusive education system. Despite the

well identifiable benefit, disabled and normal students have faced various shortcoming since the

introduction of inclusive learning in many institutions.

First, children with special need have suffered a language and communication problem.

They are required to learn while being taught in the languages that are new and in most cases

languages that they are not familiar with. This happens due to the introduction of the disabled

students to an existing learning framework without making a significant amendment to

accommodate the new set of needs presented by the new students. This, with no doubt, is a major

hindrance to the success of inclusive learning models.

The second barrier to inclusive education for students is funding. With many unique

needs and keen attention, the disable children face a higher expenditure in securing education

compared to their fellow counterparts who do not have any particular requirement to be able to

learn. According to Shaw (2014), special needs children will require special meals in line with

the medical instructions, and also a particular set of personal effects to make learning bearable if

not comfortable. This addition requirements place a heavy burden on the parents of these

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children, and in some instances, they may discontinue their children from education owing to

household constraints that they might be facing (Downing, Simpson & Myles, 1990).

The third barrier to inclusive education is the lack of accessibility. As widely known,

most students with disabilities may entail being in a wheelchair which despite the inability to

access the school buildings they cannot enter the classrooms. According to the United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2008), most of the institution, mostly the ones

built on a limited space, may have to construct story building to accommodate the demand for

space. In view of this fact, special infrastructure such as paved pathways, ramps, and elevators

might be required to enable students living with disability to access the classrooms. Supported by

other limiting factors, a student who has cerebral palsy, for instance, will not be able to open a

classroom door by turning the knob. A well-enabling environment that put into consideration of

the student with these special need will be desired at all times to accommodate the students who

require special facilities.

There are other barriers to inclusive learning that present a wider scope from other

stakeholders in education. Policy makers can also be a serious impediment to the implementation

of inclusive education if they do not accept or understand the concept of inclusive education

systems. In some nations, the law may allow the policy makers to declare some groups of

children as ‘uneducatable’ which, despite the untapped capability and willingness of a child to

learn, hinders the rights of access to education due to unfavorable policies.

How to overcome barriers to inclusive education

Despite the overwhelming barriers that inclusive education faces, the later can be

improved in a couple of ways. First, the school system should come up with policies that provide

school-based support. According to Bender. W & Scott, K. (1995), the challenge facing inclusive

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education can be solved if the school leaders are willing to organize intervention teams which

can visit learning institution pointing out what the students with particular need want and how

those needs can be addressed. Besides, these intervention teams can act as training agents for

teachers who do not know how to handle the student with special needs. Furthermore, this

continued interaction can correct the negative attitude towards those students who requires

special care.

Secondly, parents should act as partners in education. Due to the delicateness of some

students’ situation, the parent should be in the front line in providing guidelines that they feel are

safe and efficient for their children. When a student with a disability has turned to be notorious in

class, for example, the teacher might have nothing or very little to do about it. In such a case, the

parent's console comes in handy to correct this situation and reinstate learning to normal.

Finally, the education curriculum and syllabus should be robust enough to accommodate

unique talents from different groups of student. Some of the students with disabilities might have

a problem in learning theoretical contents being delivered by their teachers but with much

interest in the practical and technical bit of education. Parents, teachers and other stakeholders

who have a close contact with special needs students should be keen in observing the children’s

behavior and try to learn their interest and develop on them. Equipped with favorable teaching

policies, the teachers will be able to offers concentrated support to various students during small

breaks rather that forcefully taking them through a syllabus that they are not interested or relating

with.

Conclusion

With the current generation of increased access to information and learning technologies,

inclusive education can well serve the purpose of ensuring equal education for all children.

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Institutions that have adopted the inclusive learning system of the current century have little or

nothing to complain about since computer visual and audio technologies are playing the bigger

role in providing education to the special needs students. Many issues have surrounded provision

of inclusive education to students who have disabilities but with a concise combination of

policies and measures, the problem can be elevated. The medieval societal perception on

disability has apparently improved, and parents have enough confidence to take their disabled

children to learning institution to acquire knowledge unlike patriarchal the society set up when

parents felt ashamed of the disability associating it with a curse. Embracing this fact has

significantly enabled children with special needs to stand up for their rights for equal education.

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References

Baker, J. & Zigmond, N. (1990). Are regular education classes equipped to accommodate

students with learning disabilities? Exceptional Children. 5 6 (6), 515-526.

Bender. W & Scott, K. (1995). Teacher attitudes toward increased mainstreaming: Implementing

effective instruction for students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning

Disabilities. 28 (2), 87-94.

Downing, J. A., Simpson, R. L, & Myles, B. S. (1990). Regular and special educator perceptions

of nonacademic skills needed by mainstreamed students with behavioral disorders and

learning disabilities. Behavioral Disorders. 15 (4), 217-226.

Engelbrecht, P. (2006). The implementation of inclusive education in South Africa after ten

years of democracy. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 21(3), 253-264.

Hall, T., Strangman, N. & Meyer, A., (2003). Differentiated instruction and implications for

UDL implementation, Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General

Curriculum

Joint Committee on Teacher Planning for Students with Disabilities (1995). Planning for

academic diversity in America’s classrooms: Window on reality, research, change, and

practice. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning.

Reynolds, M.C., Wang, M., & Walberg, H.J., (1987). ‘The necessary restructuring of special and

regular education,' Exceptional Children 53, 391–398.

Shaw, B. (2014). Inclusion or Choice? Securing the Right to Inclusive Education for All. In

Sabatello M. & Schulze M. (Eds.), Human Rights and Disability Advocacy (pp. 58-69).

University of Pennsylvania Press.

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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2008). Barriers to inclusive

education. Retrieved on 2017, from http://www.brighthubeducation.com/special-ed-

inclusion-strategies/68827-five-barriers-to-inclusion-education/

Waitoller, F., & Artiles, A. (2013). ‘A Decade of Professional Development Research for

Inclusive Education’: A Critical Review and Notes for a Research Program.

Wildeman, R. A. & Nomdo, C., (2007). Implementation of inclusive education: How far are we?

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