Page 2 - LESSION 21.pmd

Inclusion : Concept and Practice

In the following lesson, you will study about the need and importance of
inclusive education and its implications for classroom practice.
Notes

LEARNING OUTCOMES
After studying this lesson, you will be able to:

• define inclusion;
• explain the significance of inclusive education;

• list strategies that can be adopted in an inclusive classroom;
• describe inclusion-related government policies and laws; and

• discuss the role of teachers, parents and community in promoting inclusion.

21.1 CONCEPT AND SIGNIFICANCE OF INCLUSIVE
EDUCATION

Inclusive education is a process that increase the participation of all children,
including those with special needs, in school. The Salamanca Statement and
Framework for Action on Special Needs Education has advocated the need for
inclusive education. India is a signatory to all such statements and has endorsed
the concept of inclusive education. The Statement has urged all governments
to adopt as a matter of law or policy, the principles of inclusive education and
emphasised that children with special needs must have access to regular
schools.

It reaffirms inclusion, which implies providing all children equitable and
effective education that responds to their needs as learners in the existing
regular school system regardless of:
• race

• class

• ethnicity
• religious belief

• being from disadvantaged and marginalized groups

• being from remote and nomadic population
• language

• gender

• geographical location

202 EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION