Inclusion Policy Issues - Essay Example

? College: Introduction Inclusion is the process of removing obstacles that prevent pupils from participating and learningfully in order to benefit from educational opportunities. In this paper, I will be going to discuss about the inclusion policy with focus on Hampshire Primary School After evaluating the policy, I will point out some of the strong and weaknesses and give recommendation on what should be done to rectify the existing weaknesses in the policy. The vision of the policy I to ensure that all the children and young people have a sense of being part of the local community they belong to. It also aims at having all the children educated and can easily access education within their local community unless otherwise. With a target of children ranging form 0-19 (25) years, the participation of their parent and children are crucial in achieving successful implementation of the policy ( Halvorsen & Neary ,2001) .The absence of an inclusion policy may deprive some students of there rights to fully benefit from the education system due to a number of factors (Hampshire County Council 2009). There are children who are disadvantaged in various capacities, have physical disability, encounter learning difficulties and require special attention to achieve their full potential in education and life. The inclusion policy lays a big role in ensuring that the problems faced by this group of children are adequately addresses. Inclusive education, according to its most basic definition, means that students with disabilities are supported in chronologically age-appropriate general education classes in their home schools and receive the specialized instructions delineated by their individualized education programs (IEP's) within the context of the core curriculum and general class activities ( Halvorsen & Neary,2001). According to the policy teachers and parents should be in a position to identify such children and plan for individualized education program that addresses the needs of the child. The purpose of having inclusive education policies is to ensure that the needs of all children are included in the curriculums guiding education. Inclusion policies came to be as a result of inequalities in education sector. These inequalities were in form of gender, racial and disability. For example some white dominated schools did not allow admission of children from minority groups such as the blacks, and if such children were admitted their life at school would be made unbearable preventing them from achieving their full potential in education. More over, physically or emotionally disabled children were not provided with the adequate attention they required from them to catch up with other children in the class leaving them to lag behind and perform poorly in class (Woodward, 2000). There were great disparities in enrollment, retention and performances between the genders. The reason for the disparity was that during enrollment the most parents did not see the reason for educating the girl child. In addition the girl child was discouraged form undertaking science related subjects and the boys were equally discouraged from taking art based subjects leading to an in imbalance between the girls and boys in the specific subject areas .On the other hand most children with disabilities were being discriminated and they had no right to education like any other child. Inclusion policies were made so that all children would get a chance to access education despite their race, gender or disability (Fazal & Lingard, 2010). Critique of the inclusion policy The policy does not clearly mention the efforts to be taken by Walsall Primary school to cater for children who are discriminated upon because of their disability, gender and racial orientations. The policy talks about an environment where children are valued, respected and their confidence built from a strong partnership with their parents (Woodward, 2000) . Even though this policy sounds good, there is a notable gap in terms of provisions for children with special education needs. For example in terms of the school infrastructure ,the policy does not talk of facilities like ramps in the classrooms and washrooms for those children with physical disability, Braille equipment for those with sight impairment and all other forms of disability. Walsall Primary school, inclusion policy discriminates against such children, although it claims to have an inclusion policy in the school open to all children in the community, there are no provisions for special education needs (Fazal & Lingard, 2010). Secondly in terms of discrimination and marginalization, the policy does not strongly address issues of gender. Boys and girls could be at par in terms of enrollment but in terms of performance there is disparity. The disparity is said to be as a result of gender stereotyping. “Girls out-perform boys in SATs at KS1, 2 &3, particularly in English, except for KS2 Maths where girls & boys are equal” (Francis, 2000). Thus, the inclusion policy should be clear enough to address issues like performance in terms of gender, subject choices and many other issues that still affect education of children. For example you will find out in many schools that boys go for the prestigious science subjects and girls settle for humanities. For this policy to qualify to be an inclusive education policy it should actually factor in all the requirements for all children in order to give a level ground for competition where every one has the same rights and encounters no forms of discrimination whatsoever (Becky, 2000). In focusing to pupils strengths, interest and motivation, the policy emphasizes excellence in education in terms of class work but extra curriculum activities are not mentioned. This limits the policy strictly to class work performance whereas an inclusive policy is one which also encourages students to excel in all areas of learning including extra curricula activities. It is a fact that not all pupils will be interested in class work some would want to venture to sports such as football, basketball, athletics, drama, music among others. An inclusive policy will give room to those pupils to those who are not talented in classroom to explore options in other fields like sports (Harry & Garner, 1999). Conclusion Walsall primary school inclusion policy to a larger extent is a good policy since it gives values all children and strives to ensure that all children excel academically. Alongside academics the policy also factors in spiritual nature and other social development which contributes to one being morally upright and also to being a responsible citizen. This shows the school commitment to nurturing young people to be responsible citizens who can occupy leadership positions in the future (Woodward, 2000). However, there are gaps that are identified in this policy. The first gap is the provision for children with special needs in terms of infrastructure. The policy should elaborate on how children with disabilities are going to be supported to enable them enjoy equal opportunities with their counterparts. For example building playing grounds, pathways, desks and reading and writing w\equipment that can comfortably be sued by the physically disabled children in the school. Thus there should be provisions in terms of infrastructural facilities and equipment that will be used by children with disability ( Halvorsen & Neary ,2001) . In terms of focusing on the strengths and interest of pupils, it is obvious that not all pupils will excel in academics but those who are not good in class might be good in extra curriculum activities. Thus the policy should include this option to enable pupils to pursue this option and not determine excellence in terms of academics alone. If the school puts into consideration the necessary infrastructure for the physical and emotionally challenged pupils and also put more emphasis on the importance of extra curriculum activities, it will achieve the right standards on an inclusion policy (Woodward, 2000). References Hampshire County Council Special Education Needs (SEN) Policy 2009-2012. Accessed on 12th April 2011 from www3.hants.gov.uk/sen-policy.pdf HALVORSEN Ann and NEARY Thomas 2001 Building inclusive schools: Tools and strategies for success, Allyn &Bacon ,Needham Heights. HAYWARD Ann 2006 ,Making inclusion happen London Paul Chapman Publishing Co. London. BECKY Francis 2000 Boys, Girls and Achievement: Addressing the Classroom Issues Routledge/Falmer, London. FAZAL Rizvi and LINGARD Bob 2010 Globalizing education policy ,Routledge ,New York. HARRY, Daniels and GARNER Philip 1999 Supporting inclusion in education systems Kogan page Ltd, London. WOODWARD Kathyrn 2000 Questioning identity: gender, class, ethnicity Open University Press London Read More