695Aa | Education Policy | Assessment Answers

There are various factors of discussion under an education policy like, size of the class and school, the privatization of schools, selection criteria for teachers, kind of certification and education provided, teaching methodology, investments for school infrastructure, etc. Education policy analysis is a part of the study of Education policy and is conducted to understand and research the objective and purpose of education, the various methods applied to achieve the said objectives, analysis of various tools to measure its effectiveness.

Motives for inclusive education may be derived from a system which does not fulfil the needs, concerns of resource allocation, or an educational reform vision (Mackay & Shaxton, 2013).

Inclusive Education: An inclusive education means that all children, irrespective of their needs and abilities, are welcomed by the neighbourhood schools in a manner where they equally contribute and participate in the age-appropriate, regular classes. It is all about the way the schools, classes, activities and programs are designed and developed to enable all the students’ participation and learning together (McCrimmon, 2014).  

It is assumed in inclusion, that children with special needs are a part of the main society and should not be treated differently. The concept of inclusion is based on Wolfensberger’s principle of normalization, according to which people with special needs and ability should live and learn in a normal environment (Alberta Education, 2017).  

Inclusive education leads to various benefits to children, like development of individual strength, children work on their goals while participating in the classroom learning activities with other students of their own age, their parent’s also get involved in the school education and activities, fosters a positive school culture and gives a sense of belonging, it also provides opportunity to learn the skill of accepting individual differences and thus reduces the impact of bullying, extends the positive angle of the community culture to appreciate diversity.

Inclusive Education policy of Canada

Background: Provision for special education need was originated in residential schools for blind and deaf. Rapid growth was seen in these schools in the 19^th century. Special schools for children with mobility impairments came later around 20^th century. Those with mental impairment were completely institutionalized as uneducable. The provision for special education needs was usually driven by professionals involved in specific impairment diagnosis and treatment, which lead to acceptance of the medical model of disability. The charitable and religious organizations also played an important role in the provision of services, hence the education of disabled individual was viewed as charitable mean instead of a right to education (Timmons, 2017).

Post the World War II, the family, community and consumer model of service for the special education need students was witnessed, which later lead to the development of the social model. A significant number of parents, disabled individuals, communities, advocates started organizing for political actions against the discrimination in society and education. By 1970’s these movements strengthened which resulted in the landmark US Education Act in 1975, which mandated the right to education for children with all types of disabilities. Later, many amendments were made in the act and to the major disability rights laws in Canada. This mandated an end to all types of discrimination and participation in the society (Putman, 1995).

This was when the inclusive education policy support was gaining strength. The school effectiveness movement did not favour inclusive education and operated in a very narrow set of parameters. The social effectiveness was more concerned about the processes and the constructs of schooling. Research on inclusive education indicates that few of the policies of school effectiveness have negative effect on the special education needs children. The argument is also that special education must be provided for restructuring the general education and for improvement. Hence, merging needs to do to achieve complete success and avoid reinforcement of what the inclusive reforms seek to change.

Many World organizations, like to save the children and UNICEF, support the notion of a merger and have developed a framework combining the approaches and inputs to optimize the learning opportunities for all, basis the participatory special needs. The framework underscores child-centered learning approach and systems which are flexible and adaptive to serve in a wide range of children with special needs (Sokal & Katz, 2015).

Policy Overview: Each province and territory of Canada have policies on inclusive education, but the manner in which the policies are implemented and the policy framework as well differ from one jurisdiction to the other. The differentiation occurs because each province or territory has their own needs and kind of people, hence the differentiation to some degree exists. Unfortunately, the different inclusive education policies at different provinces and territories means that the disabled children in one province or territory may receive a considerably different amount of support than the children with similar disability in another province.   

Philosophy of inclusion and the tools assisting its implementation is described in the policy of each province, which also defines “special needs” differently. One of the tools is the Individual Education Plan (IEP). This tool is applicable and implemented across Canada to ensure that special education program is designed and implemented by all the schools to meet individual needs. The name of this tool might differ from one province to the other, like Individual Student Support Plan, Individual Program Plan, Personalized Learning Program, Inclusion and Intervention Plan, etc. but the main motive of tool in each province remains the same.

The process of IEP at all twelve provinces of Canada, namely, British Columbia, Newfoundland, Labrador, Nunavut, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island Northwest Territories, and Yukon, first assesses and identifies the student requirements and strengths and then adjusts the education programs accordingly for them. A different approach is followed in Saskatchewan, their policy doesn’t state the assessment process, but they do conduct the holistic analysis of student’s needs in the classroom. The process of the Personalized Learning Program in New Brunswick, follows that the services should be received by students even if no identification is done through a formal assessment process. Although they do expect that the resource teacher or the service team do receive formal or informal assessment information with pupil referral for consideration (Peters, 2003).

The common rule for each province state that the Inclusive Education Plan is to be enforced by the school principal, and the school principal is responsible to inform to the parents about their and their child’s rights.

Significant developments: Inclusive Education is a key priority for the Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL), as they consider it to be a matter of rights, to contribute to the healthy development of children, and to enable them for favourable outcomes in later life. CACL has been working towards inclusive education since the early 1980s in part because the special education that was being provided to the special needs children was not meeting the goals of family members. Canada sees significantly increasing number of immigrants every year and is known as a country that is increasingly a diverse and inclusive community. CACL foresees the inclusion of children equally, including the disabled ones, in the regular local schools so as to secure a nurturing and fulfilling family and community life. Hence, their aim is to develop and foster the schools with the capacity and commitment to be willing to educate all the community children equally, irrespective of their abilities and disabilities.

The significant developments under the inclusive education done are: In the year 2000 - A joint working group on inclusive education was formed with The Roeher Institute. In the year 2002, a national conference was held which focused on inclusive education.

Also participated as a regional partner in various forums of different provinces. Like Atlantic forum in 2002, Western Canada forum, Saskatchewan forum, National forum on Research into inclusive education, Ontario forum, all in 2003; Northern forum; Manitoba forum and PEI forum in 2004, Ontario forum again in 2004 (Bunch, 2015).

CACL collaborated with various national partners for inclusive education, like, Canadian Educational Association, Council of Ministers of Education, Federation of Canadian Home and School, Canadian Association of Deans of Education, Canadian Teacher’s Federation.

A National Inclusive Education strategy has also been developed by CACL, and have also promoted the summer institutes with the issues.

Current Status of Inclusive Education in Canada: With increasing acceptance of inclusion as the preferred approach of education and learning to all, multiple approaches of education and inclusive education continue in various regions of Canada. Every province, community and school are consistently implementing the inclusive practices. The past inconsistency and approach has caused confusion and uncertainty among all the parents and the school teachers. Therefore, all parents, teachers and government officials eying for consistency of approach with an interest to ensure better quality inclusive education for everyone. There exists a high amount of inconsistency in the opportunities and services provided to the disabled students in secondary school (Western University, 2017). The system assumes that the situation cannot be changed by anyone. A lot of disparity occurs between the provinces and the set standards, which are confusing and unfair. The jurisdiction set in the special education policy is unable to ensure the commitment of the educators to inclusion. Many schools and institutions does not consider inclusion as a priority, they treat it as an add-on, which makes it vulnerable in various school systems. People committed towards inclusion, find it hard to practice the same as what is mentioned in the special education policy. The positive contributions that were expected through inclusive education practices at the school improvement is noticed to be only effective partly in the form of special education model.   

There are no effective strategies in place that could take care of effective transition from the childhood stage to the schooling, from elementary school to high school, from high school to post-secondary schools and then to employment. Children graduating from the schools show no skill development or academics learned (Marques, 2016).

Inclusive Education Policy of Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe works as per the statement and framework for action of Salamanca, with special education needs and on the various other inclusive education related international programs. Zimbabwe does not have a policy for Inclusive education, but it does have related policies for inclusive education, like the Education Act of 1996 and the Zimbabwe Disabled Persons Act of 1996. These acts were formed to ensure non-discrimination in terms of education and non-discrimination of disabled people in Zimbabwe (Chataika, 2016).

A lot of countries have been able to successfully implement inclusive education and have also successfully promoted the practices and policies of inclusive education as success stories to motivate enable the positive conditions for all the learners and to eliminate barriers. Success of inclusive education has also seen where all parents, educators, disabled people and all other related people together work towards the vision and understand the value of this inclusive change to make others also give it a priority, especially the school leadership. Success is also seen where all the learners are accepted at their own ability level for learning and everyone collaboratively work towards the same goal. Along with the success factors, there are many barriers identified in various countries, and are also noticed in Zimbabwe, which are lack of resources, lack of training of teachers, and lack of commitment by the policy makers (Chikwature, Oyedele, & Ntini, 2016).

Development: Many amendments have been made post signing of the Salamanca statement and framework for action on the principle of Zimbabwe’s inclusive education. Most of the schools perform an unplanned inclusion, by not documenting the needs of special ability children and teach them the same curriculum is that of other regular students. The teachers are not properly trained and the school system is not equipped to take care of education of special needs children. The schools are looking for alternative ways to accommodate inclusionary education for each child with specific needs. The standardization of the reforms and quality lacks in various schools, especially in the rural schools.

Earlier studies on inclusive education of Zimbabwe has made several recommendations to bring improvement in the inclusive education, like, running of awareness campaigns, collaboration among all stakeholders, teacher training programs, and availing of resources. There has been a significant need to make improvements in the inclusive education system. The government has taken measures to expand the psychological services and the special needs education division of the schools to achieve better learning experience and enable the positive development of the disabled students in schools (Magen, Mpofu, & Chataika, 2007).

Current status of inclusive education in Zimbabwe: The inclusive education has been successful in social acceptance, in the development of positive attitudes, in reduction of discrimination and the disabled children are now being involved in various community activities. With the positive impact, there also are certain challenges, as absence of a written policy document on inclusive education, lack of proper resources, discrimination due to disabilities is not completely eliminated, and inclusive education is not properly conceptualized. These challenges can be overcome by providing proper training to the teachers about inclusive education and special education needs, organizing various awareness programs for the community, getting more resources to efficiently provide inclusive education, and to get sufficient funds for the education system (Mafa & Makuba, 2013).

Inclusive education has led to positive social acceptance of disabled children, and hence the society is perceived to have developed positive attitude towards the special needs children. Researchers say that the disabled learners achieve more success in academic and social achievement in inclusive setting than in the separate one. Thus positive social achievement was noticed in the disabled learners in inclusive learning setting. The positive social acceptance is also related to the positive attitude and the reduced discrimination of disabled children. Earlier discrimination of children with some or the other disability was very high. The framework and the efforts taken towards inclusive education has brought in positive changes in the teachers as well. The regular class teachers also show a positive attitude towards the inclusive children. This could be a result of social acceptance and continuous exposure to the disabled children (Chireshe, 2013).

Lack of a specific inclusive education policy is a key challenge in Zimbabwe, hence the Zimbabwe disable persons act of 1996 and the Zimbabwe education act of 1996 provide the legal support whenever required for inclusive education. The Zimbabwe education act of 1996 states to provide compulsory free education to all children irrespective of demographic differences, and the Zimbabwe disabled persons act of 996 states that disabled people have equal right to education, employment, community activities, recreational facilities, and social services. It is believed that inclusive education is more about the attitude rather than treating it as a legislation, and hence the values related to inclusion should be imbibed into the school culture as it is how inclusion could get into the policies and practices of the school system. This factor holds a lot of importance as in its absence and making a legislation for inclusion would not eliminate negative attitudes of people towards the disabled and hence would affect the success of the inclusive education process. Success of inclusive education can be achieved if all the educators as the principle, teachers and the education stakeholders maintain a positive attitude towards inclusion. Lack of resources is another critical factor restricting the proper implementation of inclusive education in Zimbabwe. Shortage of resources was noticed in various regions of Zimbabwe and is further worsening by the high teacher pupil ratio which is almost 1 to 40. This high teacher pupil ratio leads to space crunch and leaves the teachers with no space to look towards the needs of children with disabilities. Provision of less resources could also be a result of the negative attitude of people towards the children with disabilities, as this negative attitude has not completely eliminated from the country (Nyangairi, 2016).

The funding received from Zimbabwe for general education and for inclusive education is very less. Some people do not understand what inclusive education means. This unawareness could be due to lack of awareness programs and lack of sharing of best practices of inclusive education. Some people perceived inclusive education as presence of disabled children in the mainstream regular school, without understanding if the schools have developed and equipped themselves to cater to the special needs of the disabled children.

It is a misconception that inclusion is a learning place for disabled children and not the process of learning for disabled children. Inclusive education in real terms enables schools restructuring to meet the learning requirements of these children in the respective community. Most of the teachers lack specific training to be able to teach in inclusive education. A school would be called successfully inclusive when its teachers are completely trained in inclusive education.

Analysis of inclusive education in Canada and Zimbabwe: Canada is on the top of the list in the area of inclusive education. Nine governments of Canada treat inclusive education as a value system that does not bind students to mandatorily receive education in the same classroom. They rather believe in maintaining the model of special education for disabled children or for the children with different abilities. Inclusive education is not just treated as a value system by nine governments, but also by the three northern territories and by New Brunswick. Having said that, they do believe in special education for disabled children but do not follow the model of special education that believes in segregation of disabled students at various levels. Their aim is to provide social justice to these students and to give them stronger academic and social education, and hence these four territories have developed and employed organizational and pedagogical strategies to enable disabled children also to be included in the regular classroom with other children.

On the basis of the theme of inclusive education, the regular classroom teachers should not differentiate among the students and treat all alike. However, the regular classroom teacher is not the single person to act on this matter, there are others as well who should provide equal support like, the special education teachers, Educational Assistants, parents, and all other regular students. As per the analysis, Ontario shows a lot of confusion. This can be said as the province has the policy of inclusive education, but the ministry of the province does not act towards enforcement of the policy practice (Boston-Kemple, 2012).

Implementation of inclusive education is a committed process of leadership at all the levels of education and can bring a change overnight. If there are no efforts and no aim to reach that goal, then there is a likelihood that change will not continue. The inclusive education practice of Canada has shown that acceptance of the value and importance of inclusive education and the motivation to achieve the goal of strong academic and social education for disabled students can drastically evolve the equitable education for disabled students. Looking at the other side of this, there is an area of concern, which the other students, parents and teachers cannot get an understanding of the disabled student’s potential and they continue to concentrate on their difficulty area only. This concern area puts forward the difficulties in getting the employment opportunities later. Experience received by the regular students about segregation of disabled students would be for a lifetime and they continue to follow that in the later stages of their lives.   

Lack of a specific inclusive education policy is a key challenge in Zimbabwe, hence the Zimbabwe disable persons act of 1996 and the Zimbabwe education act of 1996 provide the legal support whenever required for inclusive education. The Zimbabwe education act of 1996 states to provide compulsory free education to all children irrespective of demographic differences, and the Zimbabwe disabled persons act of 996 states that disabled people have equal right to education, employment, community activities, recreational facilities, and social services. It is believed that inclusive education is more about the attitude rather than treating it as a legislation, and hence the values related to inclusion should be imbibed into the school culture as it is how inclusion could get into the policies and practices of the school system. This factor holds a lot of importance as in its absence and making a legislation for inclusion would not eliminate negative attitudes of people towards the disabled and hence would affect the success of the inclusive education process. Success of inclusive education can be achieved if all the educators as the principle, teachers and the education stakeholders maintain a positive attitude towards inclusion (Forlin, Chambers, Loreman, Deppeler, & Sharma, 2014). Lack of resources is another critical factor restricting the proper implementation of inclusive education in Zimbabwe. Shortage of resources was noticed in various regions of Zimbabwe and is further worsening by the high teacher pupil ratio which is almost 1 to 40. This high teacher pupil ratio leads to space crunch and leaves the teachers with no space to look towards the needs of children with disabilities. Provision of less resources could also be a result of the negative attitude of people towards the children with disabilities, as this negative attitude has not completely eliminated from the country.

Inclusive education is not similar to mainstreaming, as it is concerned with the disability and special needs for education for the disabled person and is also about accommodation of this thought and practice by the mainstream. Inclusion is all about acceptance of the child in school to be provided the education with equality, which is his right. The little changes done till now have convinced the authorities like educational administrators, government, teachers, parents that these children need an equitable approach, and this will bring in a further change. Such realization is the first step towards inclusive education for all.

Possible Future Directions: These countries who already have a policy for inclusive education and the ones who do not have a policy for it, both are in some way or the other working towards achieving the goal of effective inclusive education for all. The main question with all countries who have a policy or do not have a policy or want to make a policy, is how to positively respond to the challenges occurring on the way of implementing the policy or practice, in a timely manner, that could give an equal opportunity to all for learning. The government should play an important role in towards this approach and should assure that they are addressing the issues of disability and diversity in an inclusive education arena. It is really difficult to develop a full-fledged policy approaches to address the equality issues, hence to bring in a change that is not just for the moment but sustains for longer requires certain processes that are

• Clear equality concepts which could bind the differences
• Systematic and well researched processes that also identify and understand the complexities involved in inclusive learning
• Takes into consideration all sides of the contexts in which the education programs are run
• Which are testing and thoroughly evaluated before implementation

A well planned and organized effort is the need at a national level that can collaborate rural as well as the urban areas in its plans and processes to benefit with the learning opportunities to all. A major focus area should be to broaden the access to teacher training programs and to make the processes and systems more efficient and effective that utilizes the resources to its maximum through improving the community collaborations.

Another major challenge is about the resources; hence it is important to have creative solutions that could provide further opportunities to proceed further with the development process. The lessons learned by the countries through experience and by researching the practices of other countries could be termed as success imperatives, namely, human rights, decentralization, partnerships for change and teacher training (Forlin, 2013).

The concerns expressed by the committee on the rights of the child, about the right to education of the children with disabilities and about very few numbers of enrolments of disabled children in schools across the countries show that every country needs to take efforts to improve the inclusive education for all. The new reporting guidelines state that every county will be required to document the efforts and progress they are making towards inclusive education, which would include level of access to education for the children with disabilities, what measures, practices and programs have the countries implemented to improve the situation of disabled children’s education which also includes the process of how they identify and track their development, how they respond to the difficulties they encounter, documenting would also involve the efforts and measures taken to improve the teacher training programs for educating children with disabilities.

Conclusion:

Inclusive education is not a simple task or model. A common characteristic of every child and youth is diversity, and diversity has its own strength. The fundamental responsibility of all teachers, parents, academic administrators is to understand and believe in the children’s strengths and believe in their learning capacity. Hence, all stakeholders, teachers, parents and everyone should invest towards this belief and resources and develop the intellectual problem-solving abilities in inclusive education. Almost each country now has a school, or a program or an individual who is working towards achieving the goal of inclusive education. A few countries have out passed the basic level of inclusive education and is working towards advancing their practices. The practices of these countries should be the learning standards for other countries to develop their belief and practices between special and regular education. The excessive cost of inclusive education should no longer be the restricting factor for inclusive education as inclusive education is more cost effective when compared to the segregated programs. Exclusion generally costs high in terms of loss of productivity, human potential, health and well-being. Inclusive education does not leave disabled children or poor children disadvantaged by the treatment at various learning places. Denial of education to the disabled individual is not because of their disability, but the lack of education that becomes a barrier between their opportunities to develop and learn. Even the developed countries have inequalities of opportunities in some way or the other, and these inequalities show what that country believes in. The various programs, practices and allocation of resources towards children’s education reflect their value for education for all. An equal education for all should be the priority for each nation so as to ensure a developed and learned individuals.

References

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