Inclusive education has become a catch phrase ever since the draft of new National Education Policy has been made public. However, most of inclusive education interventions under Education-for-All projects got aborted because of the fear of change at every level. Now, with emphasis on on-line learning, inclusion will be all the more difficult.
According to the educators, Jack Pearpoint & Marsha Forest, Inclusion means change!! We believe both inclusion and change are inevitable. Whether we choose to grow with and from these changes is a choice.
Here is the summary of a relevant article titled “Inclusion: It's About Change!” by Jack Pearpoint & Marsha Forest at inclusion.com.
Many people in education and human services are afraid they will fail if things change. The get struck by three fears as follows.
• Afraid of new responsibilities.
• Afraid of what they don't understand.
• Afraid of being accountable.
The author-educators say that though we know about cooperative learning and peer tutoring for long now, but we discard these too often in a guise to cover "I don't want to risk giving up control!"
The answer by the authors is that we must ‘Face the Fear, and Do It Anyway',i.e., include everyone. according to them, this will be uncomfortable - even terrifying for a few moments, but fears pass. When we face our fears, and proceed regardless, they immediately diminish and come into perspective. Our fears are simply an obstacle to overcome. They cannot and must not be a reason to deny any person their rights.
They add that a second learning is that people need support to get through the crisis period of change. The fascinating facts are, however, that this has very little to do with budgets. The key ingredients in effective change are supportive and nurturing relationships, they suggest.
It can be gathered that inclusion is purely and simply about transformation for equity. It is frightening as well as exciting since if seriously and strategically done, inclusive education has many advantages.
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