Schools for All; A Journey of Inclusion to Exclusion

Schools for All; A Journey of Inclusion to Exclusion

Halima Saadia Saeed Researcher,Scholar & Blogger

When a child is going to start school, one of the first things that parents inquire is which one school is best for their kid? And they have a lot of different options in their mind like affordability, syllabus, learning opportunities, school environment etc. Besides, it is totally different in the case of parents of a child with special needs. The first thing they are going to consider is which of the schools in my town is going to accept my child?

Its unfortunately for special needs people to have all school doors are open for everyone without any discrimination. Stepping out of home is a time to face all kinds of logos of the society. While living within home and its environment they would enjoyed 7-8 years of inclusive beauty without any discrimination. After bringing him up in an inclusive environment we choose exclusion for them to survive in special needs schools. One could imagine and analyze the change of environment to which level could disturb physically, mentally, emotionally and socially. There would be a question in mind of children after admitting in special needs schools that they are not humans or their needs are not human needs.
Why are we here !

Most schools would often use the excuse that their school doesn’t have a specific facility to accommodate such a child or even not having a special education center in their institution and they would suggest parents should look for a school who has it. Few of them will open their doors; however, the students are on their own after that. No assistance and no support would be provided from the school administration if the teacher is not accommodating the students in the classroom according to his/her individual needs, because of in-accessible things or learning barriers. Due to absence of trained skilled special education center in our public and private general settings, the student is expected to advocate for themselves at an early age because their family members can only do so much however, not everyone can speak for themselves and this often leads to students not being able to maximize their full potential in the class. They tend to become reserved, quiet and have self-doubt because teachers have made them feel they are an added burden.

Schools are so focused on their ‘regular’ students that the needs of students with special needs seem invisible to them. The dominant change in the understanding of inclusive education is that stakeholders know that it is a right, however they still have accepted their responsibility of ensuring this right. Society is only more charitable to people with special needs; they never take their needs as other humans are having. These are all human needs.

Some families don’t believe that it is beneficial for their child to pursue an education since they are a person with special needs and will rarely be able to find a job. To them, going to school is a waste of their time and money. They prefer that their children just stay home where they will take care of them.

Such human Logo is the mother of all barriers. We have to keep working together until all of these barriers and logos are transformed into functional ones. Schools in our community have to see that students with special needs are not an extra burden.

Persons with disabilities offer an insight and perspective to life that many other people do not see. Life is full of diversity and special needs people are part of this diversified universe. It is a realistic phenomenon. After considering the aim of education for All (EFA) now its need to consider and add our attention and resources towards Schools for All (SFA). Being a developing country it’s important to minimize our economical load and to make our educational system more inclusive and accessible. To build separate institution is expensive rather than to utilize already working education institutions either public or privately to educate every student without any discrimination.

How can people without special needs both pity and be inspired by special needs people?
One Word. Ableism.

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