Inclusive education in India: how and why?

For decades special schools have been the centre of learning for the children with special needs. A number of countries in the Western world, educators and administrators have put a great deal of effort into the development of a thorough and widely accepted system of special schools. In these schools all the available expertise has been concentrated in an attempt to educate pupils with special needs in the best possible way. However, this view of special education has gradually changed. Knowledge, expertise and facilities are still of importance to the education of pupils with special needs, but the segregation of these pupils is now perceived as unacceptable. The prevailing view is that, they should be educated together with their peers in regular education settings. The consequence is that regular and special education as separate systems disappear and are replaced by a single system that includes a wide range of pupils. In such way an ‘inclusive’ system for all pupils including the children with special needs where all study together. Though India has witnessed phenomenal expansion of the educational opportunities at the threshold of 21st century, the differently abled children have not benefited substantially for their growth and achievement. The education of such children in India is more than hundred years old, but our services are far from expected. The present paper aims to highlight the existing educational setting for the differently abled children in India. It also focuses on how inclusive education can be made more effective in Indian context.