Removing Barriers of Inclusive Education
Literacy education is a right of everyone. It is one of the basic needs of
man in his continuous survival.
Education is needed in able to get a decent paying job. Every enterprise,
particularly the corporate establishments, requires their personnel to be educated
in their extent of qualifications in maintaining the standard of their performance.
The corporate and career-oriented world is a big rat race that needs survival
instinct and competence. And getting adequate education is an admission in the
society where survival of the fittest is the virtue. Also, education is a rite of
passage in at least getting respect from other people.
However, literacy education is not just about being corporate. The
‘knowledge for knowledge sake’ is the motivation of some intellectual scholars
that seems to dissect all the possible information the world can offer. But for
some, education is a means of self-growth and development. Especially for the
special people in the world.
There are students who need specialized kind of education. These special
students have different educational needs depending on their capability of
understanding or their disability. Special education is a wide range of categorical
division. It could be due to cognitive ability impairment such as Down syndrome
or ADHD, physical disability like visual or hearing impairment or it could also be
attributed to ethnicity. But, whether a student is impaired or not, all children are
entitled to adequate and quality education.
Inclusive education is the context of dealing the desegregated school
community of students with special educational needs and the non-disabled
students. It is aimed at removing barriers of stigma within the excluded groups of
special students and participate effectively at general school systems. The
philosophy and concept of inclusive education started to emerge internationally in
1990’s with the United Nations inclusion education conference in Thailand
promoting the idea of “Education for All” (EFA).
Ghana’s initiative in developing the potentialities of all the children within
the educational system including the students with special educational needs
dates back in the 1960’s soon after gaining independence. The Education Act of
1961 states the free and compulsory education for all the children. Also, the
country was among the first countries in ratifying the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child. However, it does not guarantee the effectiveness of
inclusive education.
The schools are facing problems between policy initiation and
implementation. According to published journals of inclusive education practice,
although the teachers had relatively positive attitudes towards students with
special needs in a regular classroom, they had insufficient knowledge on how to
deal on lesson instructions and activity execution. Overcrowding of classroom
population is not a conducive place of learning and therefore does not achieve
meaningful educational outcome.
Moreover, teachers are lack of multi-disciplinary assessment and training
on educational settings that the special students tend to easier adjust to. The
community seems to be uninterested in pursuing the inclusive education. There
is a notable poor parental involvement. Social attitude towards inclusion seems
negating and the community is not supportive.
Inclusive education is not just a tool in giving fair treatment on excluded
groups of the society but also on alleviating the poverty in Ghana as well. It is
important to acknowledge the capabilities of the special students. Those visual or
hearing impaired are still productive people, they just lost their senses. Their
potentials can be reached in its full extent as much as non-disabled people, and
even more, with the proper training and development. And even the cognitive
ability impaired people could also be productive. Remember that most special
people have exceptional talent, either in visual painting or musicality.
The practice of inclusive education is not easy. But, strong political will
and community participation would be a great step in achieving the goal of
harmonious general school system between students with special education
needs and non-disabled students.
The situation of Ghana where inclusive education is not effectively
implemented lies in structural inequalities within the society setup and
marginalization of disabled people. Thus, unless stigma would be eliminated, the
success of inclusive education is not reachable.
References:
Gyimah, Emmaniel Kofi and Irene Vanderpuye, Inclusive Education in Ghana: What are the levers for change?
Gadagbui, Prof. Grace Yawo, Inclusive Education in Ghana: Practices, Challenges and the Future Implications for All the Stakeholders
Kuyini, Dr. Ahmed Bawa, Inclusive Education In Ghana: Are We Achieving The Vision?
www.usaid.gov
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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