The Right to Education (RTE) Act may be amended to bring special schools under its purview, Anita Julka, Professor in the Department of Education of Group with Special Needs, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), has said.
She was talking to The Hindu on the sidelines of a workshop on inclusive education at the State Council of Educational Research and Training here recently. Ms. Julka said talks had been held with the Ministry of Social Justice on amending the RTE Act, as special schools had been made a legislative option for students under the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (RPWD) Act, 2016. The RPWD Act, she said, promoted inclusive education and gave a child the option of studying in regular or special schools or have home-based education. Inclusion, she said, did not mean in the physical sense alone. It meant that the education system had to accommodate the requirements of a child rather than child having to fit the system.
Offering an option
Therefore, if a neighbourhood school was not ready to accept a child with high-support needs or its teachers were not equipped enough for that or parents felt that their children needed full-day attention or had many learning gaps, then special schools were an option in the initial years before shifting them to regular schools.
Home-based education should be the last resort, and was preferable only for children with profound disabilities, Ms. Julka said.
Inclusion, in an optimal sense, would mean providing all support in school, but it was difficult in the country. So, if at all a child was attending a special school, it should be only till the child caught up, she said. However, even if special schools were to be treated as resource centres for inclusion, it would not work till they were brought under a single umbrella, she said. Taking parents’ choice into consideration was also important.
Attitude changes were possible only if everyone worked together. The earlier differently abled children went to regular school, the more they would be be accepted by other students and teachers.
