Volume 8 : Issue 4 (2021)

Barriers of Making Indian School Education Inclusive: Path Ahead

India is having a large system of elementary education having about 26.45crore children and 96.8 lakh of teachers. But still a large number of children of disabled categories are not able to take benefit of education although it is their fundamental rights. It is a Constitutional obligation on the part of Government to see that all children of school going age get quality education. In this regard, the RPWD Act, 2016 has been passed and NEP-2020 has made special provisions to see that all the CWSNs are getting elementary education. The objectives of the study were to reveal the barriers and suggest pathways to make education available to all the school going age children. The methodology followed was a descriptive survey study by studying a sample of six elementary schools from Baroda, Gujarat State. From these schools, all principals, 30 teachers, the parents, and fifteen students were selected for the study. Data were collected by using observation technique, open-ended questionnaire, teachers’ competency scale, attitude scale for teachers, and interviews with parents and students. The data collected was analyzed qualitatively and tabulated. The main barriers are; infrastructure facilities at school, in competencies of teachers, rigid curriculum, differentiated instruction not being followed, lack of support from teachers, non-availability of assistive technologies, and lack of sufficient financial allocation. The path as suggested was enforcement of policy of inclusion and proper monitoring of the policy, training of teachers to use proper pedagogical practices, individual attention to CWSNs, and enhancing school facilities, and co-operation of parents and teachers.

School Education, Inclusive, Indian Education System

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