Inclusion: Teachers’ Attitude towards Educating Differently Able Children”

Abstract

Indian constitution constitute certain fundamental rights which are not restricted for few but applied to all the Indian citizens irrespective of caste and creed. One such rights is, rights to education which intends to provide education to all students regardless of their physical, intellectual, emotional, social, linguistic and other impairments under same roof, which in term has given rise to a new approach called inclusive education which rejects the use of special schools for differently able students thus including them under the regular mainstream. In view of the fact that children with disabilities form one of the largest groups that are still outside the fold of the general education system, the scheme provides an opportunity for children with disabilities, who have completed eight years of elementary education to continue their education in regular schools at the secondary level in inclusive environment up to age of 18 years. Thus, when policies are made to educate disabled children along with normal under the same roof, do the teachers who are used to teach regular normal children are willing to teach differently abled ones under regular class room settings is a major issue as teachers’ are the heart in inclusive settings. Therefore the present paper aims to highlight the attitude of teachers’ towards educating differently able students in the existing educational settings. It also suggest how education for differently able can be made effective in Indian context.