Kids with disabilities don’t need no special education

In 2004, Latika Sargar’s dream for her eldest son seemed to fall apart. Sachin, who has mild mental retardation, was thrown out of a government school for repeating a class thrice.

“They asked me to take him to a special school at a far off place in Malad,” says Sargar, who lives in a one-room shack in Andheri. “I could not take him there.”

Sachin has two younger siblings. “My husband told me we must educate them, and could not afford to educate Sachin,” recalls Sargar. They decided to keep the child at home. For three years, Sachin’s main tasks involved taking care of his siblings, helping out with the household chores or simply walking on the streets with hands buried in his pockets, smiling at no one in particular. “I felt very sad. My younger children were studying well and it was my dream to send Sachin to a school, too. But I did not have a choice,” says Sargar.

It’s a birthright                                        
Sayali Masurkar came to Sachin’s rescue. Married with kids, she admits there were certain hiccups at home regarding her job as a social worker. “But I was sure I wanted to do only this,” says Masurkar. The Persons with Disabilities Act was passed in 1995 (with an aim to ensure that children with disabilities have access to free education in an appropriate environment till 18 years of age). Masurkar was one of the first few people to get a copy of the Act in 1996, even before it was circulated to schools. She took copies of it and went to schools that denied a child admission to argue the cases.

She came to know about Sachin’s case in March 2008 and helped him get an admission in a mainstream school within three months. “It is possible to educate a child with mild disabilities in mainstream schools, where they belong,” asserts Masurkar. “Only then can they can be integrated into mainstream society.”

Concept on paper
Inclusive education — where the whole environment of a mainstream school is attuned to the needs of a child with any kind of a disability and every one is made aware of his/her special requirements — is not a new concept. The 1995 Disabilities Act calls for access to free education in an appropriate environment, which could also mean a mainstream school. Translating the idea into action called for years of hard work. Even if children did make it to schools, the focus lay on curbing the dropout rate.

It is the children in rural India who suffer the most due to lack of awareness about inclusive education. Rajendra K R, regional representative of Leonard Cheshire Disability International South Asia Regional Office (based in Bangalore) argues that most parents, teachers and education departmental heads are not even very aware of the Act and its provisions. “Children with disabilities in rural India do not even have the disability identity card. How can we except the government to ensure that the provisions of the Act are made accessible to people?” asks Rajendra. He insists that “the current educational system is not equipped to deal with the issues of children with disabilities.” The reasons: children with learning disabilities being out of school or dropping out, inefficient teachers, a lack of trained human resources in government institutions and an evaluation or monitoring system that is not disabled-friendly.

Making it possible
Sukanya Venkataraman is the Principal of Swami Brahmanand Pratishthan Centre for Special children in Belapur. “I think only 1 per cent of schools in Mumbai actually follow inclusive education. I remember an autistic child who came to me once after being denied admission in a mainstream school. He was talking to me about water preservation and how he would devise a way for it!” 

Education specialists have been sceptical over the success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (a programme that aimed to achieve the goal of universalisation of elementary education of satisfactory quality by 2010). However, Sudhir Khochare, Coordinator, SSA, insists that an overwhelming majority of children go to schools now. “There may be exceptions, but 90 per cent of children in Mumbai go to school.” Venkatesh Malur, education specialist, UNICEF, too, agrees that the number of children in enrolling in mainstream schools have gone up in the past five years. “School toilets are more spacious, there are railings for support in schools, for children with special needs,” he explains.

Sherly Abraham, National Coordinator, Leonard Cheshire Disability, however, feels otherwise. “Accessibility is one area that we have scope for improvement. Schools are admitting more children with special needs, but they often don’t have the right infrastructure in place. The government should take the initiative to implement these at least in municipal schools. Other schools will then follow.”

Case study
How a school made it click
Beacon High School in Khar, Mumbai, has eight to 10 special educators and admits students with all kinds of disabilities — except the profoundly challenged. “Children with special needs are seated in a class according to their age. They sit in the same class as others and take part in the same extra curricular activities,” says KS Jamali, principal.

“We have children who are slow learners and autistic. We even had a wheelchair-bound child, who had cerebral palsy,” she adds. 

Jamali feels that more schools must open up to the idea. “Schools use the excuse that they don’t have the infrastructure to start admitting such children in their school. But what do I have? I don’t even have a ramp!” Each special needs child is put on a syllabus that is specifically designed by a special educator, explains Rukshan Vakil, psychologist at the school. Depending on the severity of their disability, they are also given one-on-one classes.”

Basti, in UP, is known to be an educationally backward district. But Shikshit Yuva Sewa Samiti, a charitable trust, has been working towards making physically and mentally challenged population literate. “Many kids with special needs enroll in mainstream schools,” explains Gopal Krishna Agarwal, Director, SYSS. He, however, admits that in terms of quality services, they still have a long way to go as schools still do not offer proper facilities to retain them.