31, January 2025

CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS (CWSN) AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN CHANDIGARH: STATUS, ISSUES AND ALTERNATIVES

VOLUME-8; ISSUE-1; JAN-2025

Author(s): AMIT KUMAR

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DOIs:10.2018/SS/202501003     |     Paper ID: SS202501003


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Children with Special Needs (CWSN) in India including Chandigarh have been facing many challenges including access to proper education due to variety of reasons. Inclusive education means the provision of services to the students with special needs in their schools. This means providing the required support services i.e., special curriculum, aids and infrastructure for both students and teachers. There are different terms related to inclusion education, namely Integrated Education, Special Education and Mainstreaming. But it seems that despite initiative of the central government and local administration, inclusive education is a distant reality for Children with Special Needs (CWSN) as coverage of special education is very poor in government as well private schools in Chandigarh and teaching staff is not properly trained. The paper highlights a major shift in recognising the educational needs of CWSN which came with the launch of the comprehensive Integrated Education of the Disabled Children (IEDC) in 1974. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 strives to assure that persons with disabilities enjoy the same respect, integrity, dignity, right to equality as their counterparts. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act includes 21 disabilities. At present total number of CWSN enrolled in schools & being covered under Home Based Education in Chandigarh are 4302. The objective of the present paper is to discuss status, issues to inclusive education and mainstreaming i.e., lack of resources, accessibility, and enrolment of CWSN, special schools and trained teachers, inclusion policy, teacher anxiety. Inclusive education can eliminate the forms of discrimination in schools. The paper also discusses how resource teacher support system, early identification of the CWSN and working on various alternatives to meet their education needs including changing policy perspectives in the light of The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 and NEP 2020 to promote better education and skills that can lead to inclusiveness in Chandigarh to help the CWSN.

AMIT KUMAR(2025);  CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS (CWSN) AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN CHANDIGARH: STATUS, ISSUES AND ALTERNATIVES, Shikshan Sanshodhan : Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences,    ISSN(o): 2581-6241,  Volume – 8,   Issue –  1.,  Pp.20-28        Available on –   https://shikshansanshodhan.researchculturesociety.org/

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