TEACHER’S RESPONSES TOWARDS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN PRIMARY SCHOOL LEVEL

Education is important for all children including children with special needs. RTE Act (2009) encourages inclusive education wherein the schools will adapt themselves to accommodate children with special needs in classrooms. In this context, teacher is one of the most significant stakeholders who play a very crucial role in schools in promoting inclusive education. Therefore, the present study was taken up to find out the existing views of working teachers about inclusive education for children with special needs in their classrooms. To select the sample for the study, purposive sampling technique was used and also survey research design was used. An adapted version of SACIE (Sentiments, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education by Loreman, Earle, Sharma, & Forlin, 2008) was used to collect the data. The data was collected from 40 teachers from five schools in Mysuru. The results revealed that majority of teachers were favourable towards Inclusive Education. However, few of the teachers were unfavourable and few of them were neither favourable nor unfavourable and reasons expressed by teachers were lack of knowledge and skills, lack of time, and many other varied practical reasons which were a hindrance to include children with special needs in their respective classrooms. The study underscores solution oriented approach to be initiated for promoting and extending guidance and training through sensitization programs to the working teachers in enhancing their knowledge and skills that contributes to the success of inclusive education.