The Seven Barriers to Inclusive Education PDF

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Summary

There are barriers to inclusive education namely Attitudinal Barriers, Physical Barriers, Inappropriate Curriculum, Untrained Teachers, Inadequate Funding, Poor Organization of the education system, and Policies as barriers....

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Barriers to Inclusive Education There are seven barriers to Inclusive Education: Attitudinal Barriers, Physical Barriers, Inappropriate Curriculum, Untrained Teachers, Inadequate Funding, Poor Organization of the education system, and Policies as barriers.

1)

Attitudinal Barriers        

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Many people are not prepared to interact with people with disabilities. They think that persons with disabilities lack the skills needed to live in the community or to be educated with non-disabled children, A very common negative attitude is that some people still maintain the established belief that educating the disabled is senseless. Investing on them is counter-productive because they could not anyways contribute to societal development. Students with disabilities face physical and emotional bullying which is a serious barrier to learning and can lead to isolation and closure of possible inclusion. They are object of ridicule or outright ostracism in school and community. For example, non-disabled students may laugh at a disabled classmate because he has a speech or breathing impediment that is audible when the teacher calls him to read or recite. Prejudiced environment in the classroom may be devasting that it could affect their learning, self-esteem, socialization process, personality development, and academic performance in the classroom. Successful inclusive schools require teachers and administrators to rethink or redefine their attitude about what students are like, what a school should be like and how an education should be delivered in school. In the society, it is important that consistent and strong advocacy must be given to them considering that negative attitudes and stereotypes are often caused by a lack of knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of persons with disabilities.

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Physical Barriers 

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The lack of wheelchair ramps in school buildings, malls, parks, playgrounds, washrooms, and public transportation is a main difficulty identifies by several students with disabilities when going to school and public places Most school structures do not respond to this requirement. Some schools are still inaccessible to students in wheelchairs because mobility aides like elevators, ramps, paved pathways, and lifts to get in and around buildings are not available. There is also lack of facilities or assistive technology to aid children with a particular type of difficulty.

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Assistive Technology (AT) means the products and the services designed to meet the particular needs of people with disabilities allow them to build up their abilities and meaningfully participate in the affairs of their home, school, work, and community. Inappropriate Curriculum

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The curriculum is one of the chief impediments to the progress of inclusive system. It happens because it does not meet the needs of a broad range of diverse learners. It is centralized in design and rigid in approach which causes little flexibility, for modification based on the local setting or for teachers to try out new approaches. The content is usually irrelevant to the lived experiences of the students and the setting where they reside; thus, they turn out to be detached and less motivating. Untrained Teachers

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The teachers’ competency and attitudes can be the most important constraints for inclusive education. For example, teachers lack the required ability in dealing with students within a specific category of additional or special need. This reflects that the training and competency of teachers at all levels are often not adequate. In case there is training, it is usually incomplete, unorganized, and insufficient. With lack of training, or if the classroom is not adequately assisted by learning specialists and teacher aides, students with disabilities may not obtain further assistance they need. Student behavior is not cautiously monitored and children with disabilities may be excluded in little ways that distress their feelings of elf-esteem and lead to further isolation. Lack of technical ability is the teachers’ attitude. If teachers do not have optimistic attitude toward children with special educational needs, meaningful education for them is far-fetched. Regular education teachers usually do not have the suitable training, experience, and education to know the needs of students who have disabilities. They are not able to give students with special needs the care or attention they specifically need in the classroom, so these students fall behind or resort to tantrum and other attention-getting behaviors The persistent demand for standardized testing or other academic standards might hinder teacher’s creativity in teaching children with special needs. Inadequate Funding

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It is reflected in the scarcity of resources like insufficient classrooms, inadequate facilities, lack of teachers, and/or dearth of qualified staff, scarce learning materials, and absence of support. Insufficient funding can hamper ongoing professional developmental that helps keep both specialists and classroom teachers updated on the best practices of inclusion. Teaching students with disabilities in general education classrooms takes a substantial funding because of the need for specialists and additional staff to support the students’ needs.

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Coordinating services offering individual support to children requires large appropriation that many schools do not have, particularly in a tight economy. This predicament is much felt in developing countries where the government could hardly

Poor organization of the education system  

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Education systems are often centralized and can inhibit change and initiative. Responsibility for decisions tends to be located at the highest level and the focus of management remains oriented toward employees, complying with rules rather than ensuring quality service delivery. Lack of communication among administrators, teachers, specialists, staff, parents, and students. Information on the number of students excluded from the school system is lacking. Open communication and coordinated planning between general education teachers and special education staff are essential for inclusion to work. Time is required for teachers and specialists to respond and craft well-constructed plans to identify and implement modification. Collaboration must also exist among teachers, staff, and parents to meet student’s needs and facilitate learning at home. Policies as barriers

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Unsound grasp or opposite views on inclusive education are obstacles to the implementation of inclusive policies. There are still laws or policies proclaiming that some children are “uneducable”. This practice applies to children with severe intellectual disability. The education of some specific groups of learners can be the responsibility of another authority other than the Ministry of Education. Very frequently this brings to a condition where these learners are not likely to take part in mainstream education and, consequently, they do not have equal educational and employment opportunities. Only a profound understanding of these factors and relevant issues that hinder inclusion, and the elimination of them will make true inclusion a reality for all children to learn together. Nations have to determine a set of doable inclusive principles that would set as the guide for crafting policies, addressing inclusive education. These principles of inclusion that are set out in various international declarations can be used as a foundation. These can be interpreted and adapted into the context of individual countries....