Equipping teachers with inclusive education skills: Aavesh to Samavesh in 2015+ schools

Abstract

A major illusion on which school system rests in that most learning is result of teaching. Schools have admitted students of different capacities and abilities as a result of above directives. Schools have also moved from integrated schools to inclusive schools. Integrated schools viewed student as a problem whereas the inclusive education views system as a problem. The system is ill equipped to cater to the needs of children. What are the bottleneck and issues in the efficient functioning of the schools to help these children? What are the causes of exclusion? What are the reasons that lead teachers to aavesh (anger)? The capacity of not being able to deal with some kinds of children leads to frustration and anger. The teachers in the 2015+ schools will have to be equipped with skills, strategies and assessment processes of these children. The schools have become systems of selection as against systems for nurture of everyone. Ahmed (1975) argued, “what is learning regardless of where, when, and how it occurs. There exists wide latitude in sources, location,, times and tools of learning. Speaking about formal education he continues, “Formal schools have served as a gigantic sorting machine selecting a very small fraction of their clientele for entrance into progressively higher levels of formal education and dumping the vast majority by the wayside…It is coming to be recognized that education need not be equated with schooling and measured by years of exposure to schooling,… the schools importance in relation to other means of education is not increasing, but diminishing.” Inability to cope with the system, for whatever reason, leads to exclusion from it. If the schools as a system, for whatever reason, leads to exclusion of the students, then an understanding of the nature of these students; the nature of students‟ inabilities need attention. The next step would be how these inabilities can be handled and; how these students can be helped. In this paper the authors would like to address some of the above issues. The focus would be mainly on equipping teachers to be able to address the process of “samavesh”.