Opening the doors to inclusive education
Illustration: Sonia Kretschmar
Around the world, an estimated 650 million children are denied education because of their disabilities – but the obstacles to opening up these young lives are being eroded.
Changing attitudes to allow more children to learn is a passionate quest for Associate Professor Umesh Sharma, who coordinates a Special Education Program in Monash University’s Faculty of Education.
His projects begin by examining why teachers in developing countries are apprehensive about working with students with disabilities; he has found that their views are often the result of deep-rooted cultural aversion to the disabled.
“It’s a complex, sensitive issue that requires a deep understanding of local culture,” Associate Professor Sharma said.
Another early part of the process for his projects, which he conducts in the Pacific, India, Bangladesh and China, is consultation with education policymakers.
“Working with individual teachers won’t, on its own, bring change,” Associate Professor Sharma said. “We must also work with policymakers, teacher trainers and parents.”
Associate Professor Sharma’s work falls within UNESCO’s global goal of “inclusive learning” and has been helped by developing nations signing international conventions such as the 2007 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and landmark legislation such as India’s The Persons with Disabilities Act (1995).
Although such policies intend to integrate disabled students into mainstream education, implementation has proved difficult, so Associate Professor Sharma’s team has also been working directly with schools, teachers and parents.
Substantial practical barriers to inclusive education remain, including extreme poverty, under-resourced and overcrowded classrooms, lack of disability access, and teacher attitudes.
But Associate Professor Sharma’s message about the benefits of an inclusive approach is backed by studies showing that students with disabilities who attend regular schools are more likely to achieve academically, live independently, earn a higher salary and be married, than those educated in segregated settings.
Read the full story of Associate Professor Umesh Sharma’s work in Classrooms without borders in the October issue of Monash magazine.