CURRICULAR ISSUES OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: Challenges for Bangladesh

1
CURRICULAR ISSUES OF INCLUSIVE
EDUCATIONChallenges for Bangladesh

• M. Nazmul Haq
• Professor, I E R
• University of Dhaka

2
What is inclusive education ?

• Inclusive education (IE) seeks to address the
  learning needs of all children with specific
  focus on those who are vulnerable to
  marginalization and exclusion

3
Conception of IE in Bangladesh

• Concept of IE in Bangladesh emerged from the
  constitutional obligation and fulfillment of CPU
  act (1991)
• It is taken as a strategy to improve enrollment
  status
• Maintain quality of education across different
  ability groups
• IE wants to serve those who have been socially
  and otherwise discriminated
• Schools are to be based on the principle of
  non-discrimination

4
Present position

• Government want to bring all children to school
• Facing challenge with disabled and disadvantaged
• There is no statistics of children with special
  needs
• No study about the real magnitude of the problem
  
• Ten types of children identified as problematic
• Strategy of IE has been adopted to tackle the
  problem

5
The targets of IE

• School should accommodate all children regardless
  of their physical, intellectual, social ,
  emotional, linguistic or other conditions.
• It also includes disabled and gifted children,
  children from different linguistic or ethnic
  origins.

6
Some assumptions of inclusive curriculum

• Not all children should be doing the same thing
  at the same time
• Varying types and degrees of participation is
  appropriate
• Curriculum and school activities should be
  adjusted to accommodate the childs individual
  needs

7
Actions for the assumptions

• Intentional and intense level of instruction
• Purposeful participation in activities
• Progress with assured achievement

8
How to adopt IE ?

• A five step model of IE adoption
• Adopt the philosophy of IE
• Adapt the existing curriculum
• Develop infrastructure and facilities
• Train up supervisors and teachers
• Conduct necessary advocacies

9
Adaptation strategy

• Size adapt size of content, concepts, items etc.
  
• Input adapt the instructional inputs like,
  teaching aids, plan etc.
• Participation allow the learners to participate
  in learning task

10
Adaptation strategy (cont.)

• Difficulty reduce difficulty by adapting skills
  or aids
• Alternate have alternate expectation from
  students
• Time adapt the time as per need

11
Bring change to curricular action

• Reduce the following
• Lecturing
• Students passivity
• Asking for silence in the class
• Rote memorization
• Excessive competition
• Leveling students into ability grouping

12
Bring change to curricular action (cont.)

• Increase the following
• Activity based or hands-on-learning
• Emphasis on higher order learning
• In-depth study on smaller topics
• Devote time to reading reference books
• Transfer responsibility to students for their
  goal-setting, record-keeping, monitoring,
  evaluation
• Allow them to choose their own materials

13
Bring change to curricular action (cont.)

• Increase the following (cont.)
• Attend to students affective needs
• Create collaborative working environment
• Segregating students for their diversified
  ability
• Deliver special help into the class
• Allow varied and cooperative roles by all
• Rely upon teachers descriptive evaluation

14
Screening

• Screening of learning needs of children through
  any of the following means
• Suspecting the need in the individual
• Pinpointing the need
• Measuring the magnitude of need

15
Suspecting need

• When a child lags behind from his/her age mates
  in normal functioning.
• Developmental milestones are delayed.
• Makes mistakes with normal functioning.
• Becomes lethargic and lacks motivation.
• Fails in performing duties on repeated demands.

16
Common suspects

• Have some physical problems
• Cannot see board in class
• Reads with difficulty etc.
• Do not respond to verbal cues
• Learns things with difficulty
• Often fails in school or achieve low
• Makes mistakes in scripts
• Fails to attend class lecture
• Restless or bully in class etc.

17
Pinpointing the problem

• Notice the problem for sure
• List difficulties the child faces
• Keep under observation for a stipulated time
• Contact with professionals for confirmation of
  the problem

18
Assessment of achievement

• Measure the achievement against the targeted
  behaviour
• Use qualitative measure instead of quantitative
  value or numbers
• Value teachers own judgment
• Consider parents or others assessment as an
  indicator of achievement
• Keep cumulative record of achievement

19
Rules of assessment and promotion

• Assessment of special child in IE setting is
  largely teacher centred and subjective
• Emphasize on quality of achievement rather than
  quantity
• Keep the record of achievement of every child in
  question
• Promote the child with time and grade
  irrespective of achievement

20
Promotion

• Promotion in IE setting is a prerogative of the
  child, here comparative achievement should not be
  the criteria
• Once the child is in the stream (s)he should move
  with the group (in case of MR)
• Children with VI, HI or other disability may
  receive rational treatment
• Avoid rigidity in promotion

21
What is the implication ?

• Teacher training
• Curriculum development
• Parental motivation
• Resource mobilization
• Inter-sectoral cooperation

22
Thank you very much