CREATING AN INCLUSIVE SCHOOL

A STUDY OF NGO PROMOTING INCLUSIVE

EDUCATION

Abstract
The main purpose of the study was to define the role of NGOs in promotion of inclusion of visually challenged
children in West Bengal. It was found that although various schemes have been initiated by various NGOs are
working for the benefit of the visually challenged children, yet they are not fully benefitted from these schemes.
So, while continuing with existing schemes and involvement of NGO in the field of nurturing inclusion of
visually challenged children, efforts should be made to identify technically competent NGOs and enable them to
assume a larger role in sync with government agencies in a significant manner. Inclusion is viewed in terms of
promoting a holistic development of the child and providing equality of access to opportunities.

Introduction
It is recognized that NGOs have played a significant role in the development of inclusion for persons with
disabilities worldwide. This has been done regularly in the absence of Government involvement and initially
took an institutional, charity-based approach. Present day developments, however, favors a participatory,
community based approach, complementing and liaising with Government plans and services, and working with
all the stakeholders‟ groups. NGOs and Governments vary in their capacity to change their working practices to
achieve these aims.

Inclusion is seen as the wider reform of the education system to create a more effective education system and
society. Actually inclusion is a pairing of philosophy that allows each student to feel

respected, confident and safe so he or she can learn and develop to his or her full potential. It is based on a
system of values and beliefs centered on the best interests of the student, which promotes social cohesion,
belonging, and active-participation in learning, a complete school experience, and positive interactions with
peers and others in the school community. Inclusion such as inclusive education is based on the rights of all
learners to a quality education that meets basic learning needs & enriches lives. Focusing particularly on
Vulnerable & marginalized groups, it seeks to develop the full potential of every individual.

Significance of the Study

It has been estimated that 6 to 10 percent of children in India are born disabled with the total number of
disabled in the world standing at 10 percent of the entire population.

Objectives of the Study

Present study attempts at -
 To investigate the roles of NGOs in promotion for inclusive education.
  To share the current practices of NGO

 To finding the how NGOs achieved the goal of inclusion.

 To identify on how children with challenges can facilitate through NGOs.

Methodology
Interview

Interviews have been carried out with a few NGOs leader. With such interview, they were sharing with us on
how does the inclusion being carried out. Of course, they did touch on some of the issue and challenges faced by
them pertaining the inclusion matters.

Secondary Data

In order to discuss the inclusion, there have a few important documents has been referred and used as a main
source of data. Based on the reports, we were able to see and analyze how the inclusion which implemented by
NGOs to help to upgrade and improve themselves in the inclusive setting.

Findings ,Analyses & Interpretation

The aims of this paper are to investigate and discuss how and what are the role play by the NGOs in
nurturing inclusion. It also enlightens us how the lifelong learning activities took place within community. In
order to get a clear picture of what and how the inclusion occurred. Analysis on 2008-2009 report the following
works have been done by NGOs. Table- 3

Table- 3
Provide services of NGOs in nurturing inclusion

Services for Pre schooling

 Early Education and Training Centre
 Integrated Programme in Child Care Centre
 Special Child Centre
 Residential Special Child Care Centre
Vocational Rehabilitation Service
 Sheltered Workshop
 Supported Employment
 Integrated Vocational Rehabilitation Services Centre
 Integrated Vocational Training Centre - Day
 On the Job Training Programme for People with Disabilities
 'Enhancing Employment of People with Disabilities through Small Enterprise' Project
 Sunny way - On the Job Training Programme for Young People with Disabilities
 Work Extension Programme (WEP)
Residential Services
 Care and Attention Home for the Aged Blind
 Hostel for Severely Mentally Handicapped Persons with Visual Impairment
 Hostel for Moderately Mentally Handicapped Persons with Visual Impairment
 Supported hostel for mentally handicapped person with visually impaired
Community Support Service
 Rehabilitation and Training Centre for Visually Impaired Persons
 Communication and Information Service for Visually Impaired Persons
 Social and Recreational Centre for the Disabled
 Self-help Organizations of People with Disabilities / Chronic Illness
 The table above strongly indicated that NGO has created the inclusive learning opportunity to the people
such as community. This was a great achievement for NGOs. In fact, continuous education and training always
considered as a best approach to improve their social and economic status. It also helps the challenged persons
to develop the kinds of skills as required in their daily living and at the work place. One of the important finding
show that the challenged community are able to have an equal rights and opportunity to learn especially to those
who have no formal education as well as those staying in the ruler areas. Again, it proven that NGOs has played
an important roles to promote such inclusive learning opportunities.

It is proud to say that NGOs has put inclusion as one of the important agenda it their efforts to empower the
community. In fact, NGOs have a very clear mission and vision to help the challenged people to live
independently through inclusion. This finding proven that NGOs have taken some necessary measures to
improve the quality of life among the visually impaired community.

Educational Implication
As for any other group, education is critical to expanding the life prospects of people with visually
challenged.. Despite its importance, educational outcomes for children with visually challenged remain very
poor. Illiteracy rates both for all PWD and for school-age visually challenged children remain much higher than
the general population, and school attendance among school age visually challenged massively lags that of non-
disabled children. A review of the current performance of NGOs in the promoting inclusion to get children with
visually challenged into school and improve their learning outcomes follows. An overview of non-government
initiatives in PWD education then follows, before conclusions and recommendations.

Recommendation
Some additional advice may serve as useful guidelines for NGOs to nurturing effective inclusion –

 NGOs may undertake and stimulate action research to identify new techniques and methodologies for
providing challenged children access to subjects like Mathematics, Science and Geography.

 Monitoring programmes on inclusive education and assistance to children with disabilities to ensure that
the interests of impaired children receive due attention.

 NGOs may take the lead to widen the range of integrated sports and recreational activities for
challenged children.

 Private sectors are encouraged to help NGOs to implement inclusion.

 NGOs may motivate and provide necessary specialist advice large scale production of various
technological devices

 A vigorous awareness campaign may be launched in different districts to identify and detect challenged
children at the earliest possible opportunity.

 NGOs also need to tap more effectively the resources of organizations like National Institute of Open
Schools for reaching out to visually challenged learners,

 Government should allocate certain amount budget through government annual budget to enable NGOs
to carry- out inclusion programme.
Why NGOs are needed to boost the spread of education in India
Since India is a vast country, both geographically and demographically, government alone cannot bring all children
into the fold of education. . Several Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) have been working at the sheer grass
root levels to extend education to underprivileged children in India. Since independence, NGOs have beentrying
hard to strengthen the existing education system and network in the country so that more and more children get
opportunities to go to school and remain there. The best thing about NGOs is that they work at the grass root level,
connecting with the masses and spreading awareness on the importance of getting good education to march ahead
in life

How NGOs are contributing to the cause of education in India

1. Most important aspect to boost the spread of education is to spread awareness amongst the parents and the
communities and every child needs education.
2. Another important aspect to improve the penetration of quality education among the most deprived children is to
make learning a fun experience.

3. The NGOs engage heavily with the local communities to form Children Groups (CGs) and School Management
Committees (SMCs) and work with them to ensure that they take accountability of the development of the children
in their community.

4. Group learning has proved to be one learning methodology which helps children learn better and fast and also
promotes healthy competition..

5. Metros such as Kolkata and Delhi are home to a large number of urban poor who live in slum or slum-like areas.
Runs learning centres for street children and child labourers

. Nowadays, NGOs have become very popular in fulfilling the educational goals set by the government. The
greatest challenge for the State or central Government is to achieve accessibility, inclusion and empowerment of
Special Needs Children and NGOs can be a survivor in this field as well.

Indian Government is fully committed to the realization of the objective of universalization of Elementary
Education, without including the Children with Special Needs (CWSN) the objective of UEE may not be achieved
& the obstacles of a good education faced by millions of children in South Asia Throughout the last decade NGOs
have been increasingly tapped to implement development programs.
NGO approach to advancement is based on the principle of people’s participations. NGOs are looked upon as
alternative agencies which are receiving attention now a day and are useful in promoting awareness, change and
improvement in society. They are extensively involved in reducing the poverty and promoting sustainable
development. They are in a position to provide social services to different parts of the society where as the
government fails to provide such services.
There is acute shortage of trained man power who can deal with the problems of Children with Special Needs.
Teaching Techniques, Aids and appliances and Technology handled by present resource persons are also
insufficient and very traditional. Finally, the greatest challenge for the State Government is to achievement of the
accessibility, inclusion and empowerment of Special Needs Children. This study shows that these types of gaps can
only be fulfilled with the help of collaboration with parents, with the supports of organizations Special Schools for
providing inputs on training, curriculum delivery, assessment, etc. because these organization are primarily
working for the inclusive growth of Children with Special Needs

The purpose of this study is to identify the roles played by Non-Governmental-Organizations (NGOs) in promoting
inclusive education.
NGOs offered education for chil- dren with disabilities, a service that the government was unable to provide in
large areas of India. Special schools run by NGOs have been under the jurisdic- tion of the Ministry of Social
Justice and Empower- ment (MSJE).
Beginning in the 1970s, another stream of educa- tion for children with disabilities, called integrated education,
was started in government schools..
Since 2001, in keeping with international trends, the MHRD has promoted inclusive education1) under its
“Education for All,” campaign, the Indian government’s flagship programme for the achievement of
Universalization of Elementary Edu- cation, and focuses on girls’ education as well as that of children with special
NGOs became part of to implement inclusive education in the gov- ernment-run regular schools in many states. It
has been pointed out that in the past, the state govern- ments and NGOs have formed, with increasing gov-
ernmental aid, mutually beneficial relationships in the field of education of children with disabilities, as well as in
general education

The specific aims of this study are:

First, to describe the activi- ties of the NGOs; and second, to clarify the roles of NGOs in promoting inclusive
education, by analyzing their features, issues and prospects.

The key points for the analysis in the present study are: (i) features of activities of NGOs, (ii) issues relat- ed to
service provision through NGOs, and (iii) roles played by NGOs and future prospects.
Results

Activities of NGOs Described in Documents of the State Government

“The most important role that the NGO plays in the state is to provide all kinds of resource support for inclusive
education” and “Only those NGOs with enough experience in educating children with special needs are selected
after seeking the ap- proval of the Executive Committee.”
The following is an outline of inclusive educa- tion activities conducted in the state

NGO has different departments catering to the various needs of children and adults with disabilities: “The Center
for Special Education,” a special school recognized by the RCI; the “Employment Education Center”; the “Early
Intervention Unit”; the “Training, Disability Legislation Unit”; and the “Community Based Rehabilitation.”11) The
departments in which IDC is carried out under SSA is called “Inclusion Cell.”
NGO was the implementing agency for the IDC project in NGO implemented three activities:
(1) Management of resource rooms Cor- poration Schools and implementation of itinerant teaching by resource
teachers,
(2) Employment and management of resource teachers, and
(3) Manage- ment of Day Care Centres.

The NGO has extensive skilled professional manpower and had played a leadership role in the ad- vocacy
movements for persons with disabilities in the state. On the other hand, NGO has experience in providing various
types of assistance in rural settings where children with disabilities tend to be excluded from educational
opportunities if they must provide for them on their own. More than 70% of the popula- tion with disabilities lives
in rural areas: however, re- source support continues to be concentrated in met- ropolitan cities NGO has
experience in establishing collabo- ration with parents/caregivers of children with dis- abilities and also in teacher
training. Because of their skills in advocating for people with disabilities, re- source teachers hired by NGO should
have the op-
portunity to study a wide range of issues related to disabilities. We often see this type of visionary NGO in
metropolitan areas. The “Metropolitan NGOs” are in a position to develop their own teaching materi- als and offer
these materials. However, government schools are not always the best places for pioneer- ing NGOs to display their
optimal abilities, because students in government schools are mostly from ex- tremely poor backgrounds and
advocacy might not be a priority in their lives.
In the rural areas, some parents are unwilling to show their children with disabilities in public and therefore hesitate
over their children’s schooling. To fulfill the need of these children with disabilities, NGO made use of their
hostel facility to provide secure and easy access to school for students with disabilities. Also by setting up the
Special Residential Bridge Course inside the hostel, children with men- tal retardation were also able to participate
in formal schooling.

Issues Related to Service Provision through NGOs and Their Future Prospects
On the one hand, from the perspective of children with disabilities and parents or caregivers, NGOs represent easy
access to consultation regard- ing schooling, since NGOs are based in the locality, especially in the case of rural
NGOs. In this respect, NGOs are in a position to provide flexible support. On the other hand, from the perspective
of resource teachers, working in a school under an NGO compli- cates their status. Resource teachers were hired
and worked on-contract with the NGOs. Therefore, their positions were not secure and they were paid less than
government school teachers. In schools, insofar as they work under different organizations than reg- ular classroom
teachers, they might not be regarded as proper staff.
Secondly, accountability and transparency of NGO activities such as selection and hiring of resource teachers and
other personnel, the formulation of budgets, expenditures, etc. have been an issue of con- cern. majority of NGOs
tend to be perceived as public act of charity and their focus is limited to delivering life skills rather than ed- ucation
for better life opportunities .the professional contribution of NGOs in areas such as identification, training, and
development of materi- als could still be required in many spheres of the IDC project, even after management is
completely taken over by the government. Also the NGOs’ role as gov- ernment project monitor might be more
important in the future.
Roles Played by NGOs
Among the contribution of NGOs under the IDC projects of SSA foremost may be the inclusion of stu- dents with
disabilities in regular classrooms in gov- ernment schools—something which had previously been scarce or
neglected. On this point, NGOs played a pioneering role in paving the way towards inclusive education to
accomplish nearly 100% en- rollment rate of children with disabilities even taking into account the possibility of
over-reporting

Conclusion
The tasks performed by the NGOs in promoting inclusive education under the SSA scheme in Tamil Nadu were
two-fold: management of educational settings and employment of personnel.
The importance of the role NGOs can play in the spread of education to different nook and corners of a vast
country like India is undeniable. Together with existing Government machinery, NGOs can ensure that no child is
left behind when it comes to getting education.

As discussed above, we would like to say that inclusion has been nurturing within the challenged people in this
state under the effort of NGOs. One of the important finding is the role of NGO is being recognized and should
be given a credits. Such NGOs effort should be praised and perceived as a role model by others.. Therefore, the
ideas of Inclusion and rights based are always being recognized and put it in a practice. Finally, we believe that
the task of NGOs in nurturing inclusion to all children with disabilities is challenging and daunting.

Properly managed and adequately supported NGOs hold the key to achieving this stupendous task within the
given time-frame, in quantitative as also qualitative terms. The government and the corporate sector have to
work in close partnership with NGOs in this regard.
The NGOs help to instruct local people in educational field and also aid in developing learning materials for
different trades. They have been aware of the fact that rehabilitation of special need children encompasses various
stakeholders, viz., persons with disabilities, their families, and local leaders, service financiers such as the
government and international agencies, who all need to complement each other, for better functioning.