Policies on Disability and Inclusion of Children with Special Needs in Education

Various policies concerned to Children with Special Needs in the context of national and international deliberations are briefly looked into in this article to get a broad understanding of the related issues. Neither is it exhaustive nor comprehensive but hopefully it will serve as a starting point for someone like me who had no idea regarding policies on disability. 

• The Mental Health Act 1987
• The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992
• The Persons with Disabilities(Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995
• National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act (1999)
• United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (2008)
• UNESCO Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education (2009)
• The Right to Free and Compulsory Education (2009)
• UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012

The Mental Health Act 1987

This act consolidates the law relating to the care and treatment of mentally ill persons. It makes provisions for the safeguard of their rights, property and welfare. It also makes guidelines for the guardianship of mentally ill persons. It mandates the establishment of central and state authorities for licensing, establishing and supervising the psychiatric hospitals. It provides detailed guidelines for taking the custody of mentally ill persons who are unable to look after themselves or are dangerous to themselves and others. It regulates the procedure of admission and discharge of mentally ill persons to psychiatric hospitals and the authorities established under Ministry of Home Affairs (1987) are empowered to inspect the hospitals or any services offered to mentally ill to ensure their rights and the quality.

Mental illness too is considered as a disability in the Persons With Disability Act (PWD, 1995). The implication of these two acts on the education of mentally ill children is not clearly understood.

The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992

The Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) set up in 1986 was made a statutory body by the enactment of the above mentioned act on 22 June 1993. This act was amended in 2000 to make it more broad based. It is entrusted with regulating and monitoring services given to persons with disability, to frame appropriate curriculum and to maintain the database of all qualified personnels working in the field of Rehabilitation and Special Education of persons with disability.

It is necessary for institutions working for persons with disabilities to be recognised by the RCI. RCI sets the norms and guidelines for these Institutions and does the periodic assessments and accreditation for monitoring the quality. The curriculum that is offered in these institutions, courses of study and criteria for faculty appointment are all guided by the RCI norms for quality assurance.

Wide range of professionals like Audiologist and Speech Therapists, Clinical Psychologists, Hearing Aid and Ear Mould Technicians, Rehabilitation Engineers and Technicians, Special Teachers for Education and Training the handicapped, Vocational Counsellors, Employment Officers and Placement Officers dealing with handicapped, Multipurpose Rehabilitation Therapists, Technicians, Speech Pathologists, Rehabilitation Psychologists, Rehabilitation Social Workers, Rehabilitation Practitioners in Mental Retardation, Orientation and Mobility Specialists, Community Based Rehabilitation Professionals, Rehabilitation Counsellors/Administrators, Prosthetists and Orthotists, Rehabilitation Workshop Managers have to register themselves with the RCI to be eligible to practice their professions concerning persons with disability.

RCI Act was amended in 2000 to be in sync with the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. On the whole RCI is the apex governing body in India to ensure the quality of services offered to the persons with disability. It is also involved in promoting research in the area of disability. Its views on the inclusion of persons with special needs in regular schools is not known. How it is going to keep up with the same quality assurance and monitoring mechanism in the wake of Right to Education Act,  2009 also needs to be understood? Does it has the same authority over mainstream educational set ups in the country like the special schools is very unclear. As per RCI Act (1992) personnel dealing with persons with special needs without registering themselves are liable for punitive action. So the case of teachers handling the persons with disability in regular classrooms without registration is yet to be sorted. This confusion has severe negative consequences for the quality of education for those with special needs.

The Persons with Disabilities(Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995

India became a signatory to the proclamation on the Full Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asian and Pacific Region during 1992 at the meeting in Beijing to launch the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993-2002). To implement this proclamation the above mentioned act was enacted by the Indian parliament. This act defines disability as blindness, low vision, hearing impairment, leprosy cured, loco-motor disability, mental retardation and mental illness.

The act calls for the setting up of two committees at central and state level. one is the coordination committee and the other is an executive committee. Coordination committees are required to ensure the rights of persons with disability by advising different government bodies for necessary changes in the policy and practices and the executive committee is responsible for carrying out the decisions made by coordination committee.

It stresses on the significance of prevention of disability at the early stages itself and needs the government to screen all children at least once in a year to identify potential factors that may lead to disability in the long term. It also mandates the government to take all measures to prevent disability occurring at prenatal and postnatal stages. The act makes the government responsible for providing non-discriminatory environment like adapting railways, buses, road signals, building ramps, braille signs and auditory signals etc to suit the needs of Persons with disability.

The act also says that children with disability should be provided with free education until the age of 18 by the appropriate government. It says that government should make provisions for integrating these children in regular schools along with schools exclusively meant for them. It also requires state to make provisions for educating such children through non-formal education and vocational programmes. It mandates 3% of seats to be reserved in educational institutions and public sector employment.

National Trust for the Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act (1999)

As per the above act an autonomous organization was set up under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment of Government of India. The National Trust was set up to find an answer to the worries of parents - “What will happen to my child when I am no more?” Here child refers to child with anyone of the disability like Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities. Given the inability of these children to make decisions in life it has provisions for their care and protection in the event of death of their parents or guardians. It has evolved comprehensive procedures for the appointment of guardians and trustees for persons with such disabilities. It also extends support to registered organizations to provide need based services during the period of crisis in the family of persons with such disability. Apart from this its other stated objectives are as follows.

• To enable and empower persons with disability to live as independently and as fully as possible within and as close to the community to which they belong;
• To strengthen facilities to provide support to persons with disability to live within their own families;
• To deal with problems of persons with disability who do not have family support;
• To facilitate the realization of equal opportunities, protection of rights and full participation of persons with disability.

It implements its objectives through government departments and local bodies, registered organizations and its own grassroot wing called local level committee at the district level.

How do we view the National Trust Act in the context of Inclusion of children with special needs in Education? It acknowledges the fact that there are going to be certain persons with disability who remain heavily dependent on the community for rehabilitation. Inclusion of children with special needs in education will help build a well informed community which can further play a proactive and vigilant role in the welfare of such people.

United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (2008)

As per this convention disability is seen as one which results from the interaction between a person’s impairment and obstacles like physical barriers and negative attitudes that prevent their participation in the society. It takes us from viewing persons with disabilities as objects of charity, medical treatment and social protection towards viewing them as ones with rights, capable of claiming those rights and making decisions for their lives based on their free and informed consent while also being active members of society. So this convention marks a shift in the way disability is perceived, as a social welfare concern to a human rights issue. It aims to protect, promote and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights by persons with disability.  It emphasises that it is the social barriers and prejudice that are disabling not the impairment alone. Hence argues for accessibility, personal mobility, health, education, employment, habilitation and rehabilitation, participation in political life, equality and non discrimination for persons with disability. This convention sets the stage for full scale inclusion of the persons with disability with the mainstream society.

India is a signatory to this convention and it is legally binding to implement the legislation of the convention.  

Policy Guidelines on Inclusion in Education (2009)  

To serve as a resource for policymakers, teachers and learners, community leaders and members of civil society in their efforts to achieve Education for All goals, these policy guidelines were arrived through International Conference on Education in Geneva, Nov 2008.

Assistant Director-General for Education of UNESCO , Nicholas Burnett in the foreword to this document writes the aim of inclusion in education is to eliminate exclusion that is a consequence of negative attitudes and a lack of response to the diversity in race, economic status, social class, ethnicity, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation and ability. Inclusive education is considered as very central to the achievement of high quality education for all learners and the development of inclusive societies. Education of persons with special needs is placed here within the larger framework of many other factors which is very much essential to understand the issue holistically. This will initiate us to examine the issue in terms of religion, in terms of gender, poverty, race, ethnicity etc separately which enables us understand the status of persons with special needs from multiple perspectives. This multi perspective approach will be most effective way to ensure the rights of persons with special needs.

In this document inclusion in education and quality of education are said to be reciprocal (p. 10). In other words access (not just physical) and quality of education are mutually reinforcing. Further the quality of education is said to incorporate two important conceptual frameworks. One is the cognitive development of the learners and the other is the promotion of values and attitudes for responsible citizenship. Currently when we are in state of dilemma whether to educate persons with special needs in an exclusive educational setting or not. I identify the root cause of this dilemma or anxiety to the quality of education. Without enough training to the personnel in the mainstream educational setting, without necessary changes in the curriculum, without the functioning mechanisms already in place in terms of diagnosis, infrastructure and grievance redressal we are in a hurry to put all the diverse individuals in one place to meet international commitments on inclusion in education. The rights of persons with special needs will be better ensured in an exclusive quality educational provisions than in the poor quality mainstream education. So any attempt to bring in inclusion of persons with special needs should be preceded with improving the quality in the mainstream education.  

Recognising curriculum as an important factor in Inclusion in education this document suggests inclusive curriculum to be based on the principles of non-discrimination, appreciation of diversity and fostering tolerance. It should also reflect the visions and goals of wider development of that country (p. 19). Such a curriculum will be sensitive to the diversity of issues mentioned already. So the emphasis is not on forcibly training or educating the persons with special needs to meet the criteria of standard curriculum instead it about evolving a curriculum that suits the needs of diversity in the pupil.

The document draws its attention towards negative attitudes of teaching and non teaching staff along with parents and the families of a pupil as a major barrier to the inclusion in education which has to be addressed through continuous in-service professional development (p. 20). Given the vulnerability of persons with specials needs the suitability of the personnel (both academic and non academic) who are made responsible for them should be ensured even before giving them the task of educating them.

India is a founding member of the UNESCO since 1946. Article VII of the constitution of UNESCO requires that “each Member State shall make such arrangements as suit its particular conditions for purposes of associating its principal bodies interested in educational, scientific and cultural matters with the work of the Organization”. Hence this document holds lot of significance in the way Indian state considers inclusion in education.
Also Inclusion in education is a direct consequence of various international conventions, recommendations and declarations for which India is a signatory. Here Inclusion explained and understood through Human Rights framework. The overview of these is illustrated below.

             


             
             

             

            


The Right to Free and Compulsory Education (2009)

Under this act now it is the right of the children with disabilities to avail free and compulsory education in regular schools. As per this act  a child with disability is defined as follows:

• A child with disability is to be included in the Act's definition of children belonging to a 'disadvantaged group'.
• A child with 'disability' as defined in 1995 Persons with Disabilities Act
• A child with 'disability' and 'severe disability' as defined in National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999.

The provisions of the RTE for the disabled children are in consonance with the UNESCO guidelines on the Inclusion in Education. The problem arises in the implementation stage. Most public schools already had the issues with the quality of education provided. So the inclusion of children with special needs has only worsened the situation as per the status report RTE 2013. The following are the important findings related to the status of the RTE implementation with respect to the children with special needs (p. 177).

• Most teachers in regular had no training with regard to the inclusion of children with special needs.
• The infrastructure did not meet the needs of Children With Special Needs (CWSN) like toilets, drinking water facilities, ramps etc
• The aids and appliances provided to the CWSN were of poor quality and the ones provided were kept in resource centres and children were not allowed to take them to their homes.
• The visits by the special education teachers to the regular schools was very rare.
• Regular schools had limited vision with respect to inclusion of CWSN.

Teacher shortages, very high pupil teacher ratio, non availability of special teachers on daily basis, non availability of learning resources suitable to CWSN are cited as major drawbacks in the implementation of RTE for CWSN. 

UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012

The meaning of the word ‘Equity’ referred here in these regulations made by the UGC is same as the word ‘Inclusion’ referred in the above two documents. These regulations will apply to all the higher educational institutions in India. It says ‘Equity’ means a level playing field for all the students in respect of the entitlement and opportunity for enjoyment of all legitimate rights. It states such a level playing field will be free from any discrimination or harassment. These regulations define the word ‘Discrimination’ as any distinction, exclusion, limitation or preference which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing equality of treatment in education and in particular

• of depriving a student or a group of students on the basis of caste, creed, religion, language, ethnicity, gender and disability of access to education of any type or at any level;
• of imposing conditions on any student or group of students which are incompatible with the dignity of human; and
• of subjecting to the provision of establishing or maintaining separate educational systems or institutions for students or groups of students based on caste, creed, religion, language, ethnicity, gender and disability.

Further the word ‘Harassment’ is defined as any unwanted conduct which persistently demeans, humiliates or creates a hostile and intimidating environment or which is calculated to induce submission by actual or threatened adverse consequences.

These regulations mandate every higher educational institutes to take appropriate measures to promote equality among students of all sections of the society. It further instructs to educate the educational fraternity and public by raising public awareness on the importance of equality and overcoming any form of discrimination and harassment against students belonging to various sections. The word ‘Equity’ is defined here through Human Rights framework which is same as what the word ‘Inclusion’ means.

References

Soni, R. B. L. (2013). Status of Implementation of RTE ACT-2009 in Context of Disadvantaged Children at Elementary Stage. New Delhi: NCERT. Retrieved from http://www.ncert.nic.in/departments/nie/dee/publication/pdf/StatusreportRTE2013.pdf

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. (n.d.). The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995. Retrieved from http://socialjustice.nic.in/pwdact1995.php

Mental Health Act, 1987 - Description. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.medindia.net/indian_health_act/mental-health-act-1987-description.htm

National Trust. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions on Disability. Retrieved from http://thenationaltrust.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=77&Itemid=131&limitstart=5

Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs. (1992). The Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992 (No. 34 of 1992). New Delhi. Retrived from http://www.rehabcouncil.nic.in/writereaddata/rciact.pdf

United Nations. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml

UNESCO. (2009). Policy Guidelines on Inclusive Education. France: UNESCO. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0017/001778/177849e.pdf

UGC. (2013). UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/2147890_gazetteequity-Eng.pdf

Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit: Relevance for Language in Education

Lisa Delpit is an African-American educationalist. She obtained her Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from Antioch College in Ohio. Her first teaching position was at an inner-city open elementary school in Southern Philadelphia. After this, Delpit attended Harvard Graduate School of Education to pursue her Master's and Doctoral degrees in Curriculum, Instruction and Research. Most of her work has been focused on literacy development of poor, black children. The book Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom (1995) is a collection of essays written by Delpit which were published at different times.

Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator

In this chapter, Delpit discusses the problems she and other Black teachers faced in educational institutions mainly dominated by White people. She says that as a teacher, the difficulties she came across while dealing with children of minority groups were similar to those she had when she was a student in a black Catholic school. The fact that children learn to write by writing in meaningful contexts is emphasized and she herself learnt writing in Standard English in this way. But the importance given to correct grammar and dialect more than writing itself makes it difficult for children from poor black communities to learn writing.

Just like her White colleagues in school, even she used the methods of open classroom, learning stations, use of games and shared writing to teach the children reading and writing. But gradually she observed that the Black students were unable to learn as quickly as others and were lagging behind. The writing process to literacy which focuses more on fluency than correctness was also one of the factors in the failure of these children to learn. Delpit says that such methods of teaching which integrate reading and writing, emphasize meaningful texts more than the form of writing are not helpful to the children from poor, minority backgrounds. These students do not get opportunities to read and write in Standard English because even their home environment lacks people who are aware of the correct form of literacy. Thus, when these students write, the structure and the grammar of the sentences are often not correct and instead of blaming the inadequate teaching practices, their socio-economic backgrounds are blamed for these mistakes.

I feel this is similar to the situation in my M.A. classroom where some of the teachers repeatedly keep saying that some students have ‘language problem’ and I completely disagree with the use of this term. If fluency in English and writing grammatically correct sentences is the only requirement to be called as proficient in language, then we are highly mistaken. We should keep in mind that they can read and write very well in their mother-tongue not only because they are familiar with it, but also because they have been taught the skills of literacy in that language. Hence, when we as teachers encounter children from various linguistic and social backgrounds, we need to teach them the skills of reading and writing instead of focusing on fluency of the language. Delpit says that making them practice handwriting, correcting their mistakes, giving them time to be ready for learning are very important factors which affect their learning. She defines skills as “useful and usable knowledge which contribute to a student’s ability to communicate effectively in standard, generally acceptable literary forms” (p. 18).

It is essential for all the students irrespective of where they come from, to develop technical skills and think critically as well as creatively to succeed in any field-education, social, economic or politics. In the end of this chapter, she asserts that for progressive education to benefit the all the students, the problems and suggestions of teachers from minority communities should be heard seriously and implemented wherever possible.

The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children

In this chapter, Delpit focuses on the teaching methods used in the classrooms and what effects these methods have on the learning of children from poor and Black community in America. She takes the debate of process-oriented versus skills-oriented writing instruction as the base to argue what teachers should do to help the children from minority groups in learning and grasping concepts easily. In the skills-oriented approach, the learning occurs from top (teacher) to down (student).

The teacher is like an instructor who tells the student everything he needs to know using lectures, assignments, and such conventional methods in order to attain a certain goal mostly good results in the examination, graduation, etc. (Knowles, 1975, cited in Morris, 2010). The process-oriented approach engages students in self-study, group activities, discussions which are guided by the teacher but does not need him to interfere continually. Students are given the freedom to express themselves by writing on topics relevant to them personally as well as culturally and the teacher later gives them feedback and follow-up instruction so that they can improve their writing skills (Troia et al., 2009, cited in Morris, 2010). This approach is useful for classes where number of students is large. Forming groups allows them to discuss and write on a given topic which helps the teacher to manage and focus on individual students.

Narratives of some Black students and teachers about their experience in White majority classrooms all say the same thing- they are not heard by the White (teachers and students). Their personal experiences, problems and socio-economic background are not counted in as important in the classroom. The White people believe that they know what is appropriate to be taught for all children including the Black. They trust research work done by other White people but do not consider the suggestions of fellow Black teachers and students in improving education for the Black. Delpit herself is a Black educator and she also faced such situations in classrooms where the process-oriented approach which is mostly used in American schools, did not prove to be beneficial for the Black students as compared to the White. She says that the dismissal of skills-oriented approach by the progressive educators is not good for the poor and Black children as they are not acquainted with the culture of the White people which dominates the curriculum and pedagogy in classroom. She says that this unquestioned authority of a particular section over the educational practices of the society can be termed as “culture of power”.

The authority of the teacher over students and the curriculum makers’ power to design the content and methods as per their world views are some of the issues of power that are enacted in the classroom. Mannerism of interacting, writing and dressing are the rules to be a part of the culture of power. These all represent the people i.e., middle class and upper class who hold this power but children from the lower class who are alien to this culture find it difficult to follow and survive in this code of conduct. The most important thing Delpit brings out of this discussion is that if rules of a culture are told explicitly, it is easier to follow them and succeed for people from other cultures. She gives example of a reading program called Distar which needs the teacher “to maintain the full attention of the group by continuous questioning, eye contact, finger snaps, hand claps, and other gestures, and by eliciting choral responses and initiating some sort of award system” (p.27). She says that this initiative helped all the children including the culturally deprived ones in learning to read. She refers to a study by Siddle (1988) which shows that direct instruction of standard writing procedures by teacher resulted in improvement in writing skills of the Black children while peer conferencing had the least effect.

But here comes the last aspect of the culture of power. She says that those who have the power do not acknowledge it while those who are deprived of it are more conscious of the need to acquire it. Liberal educators believe that expressing the power of knowledge a teacher has in the classroom will not give opportunities to students to explore and grow. Children from upper class come to the school with the knowledge of mannerism and skills required by the education system but other children do not have that culture at home and so they need to be told explicitly what is expected from them and how they can achieve it. Thus the belief of the liberal educators deprives the poor and Black children from success even before they could try for it.

She gives an example of a Native Alaskan teacher who deals with children who talk in what is called as Black English while the schools expect them to write in Formal English. She says that activities like letting the children interact with “various personnel officers in actual workplaces about their attitudes toward divergent styles in oral and written language” (p.44), asking the students to compare different writing styles, telling them the technical details of formal writing procedures, etc. helps them to learn writing in Formal English while not having to let go their own dialect of English which they use while talking within their groups.

I felt it interesting that throughout the paper, Delpit never promotes the methods or language of the dominant people but takes a pragmatic approach while saying that “they must be encouraged to understand the value of the code they already possess as well as to understand the power realities in this country” (p.40).

Delpit suggests that schools should teach these children the basic tenets of the culture which they do not get at home. Being from a different culture should not deny them access to quality education and later employment. She does not advocate the culture of power but says that “to act as if power does not exist is to ensure that the power status quo remains the same” (p.39). Thus, it is important that schools encourage the children from minority groups to value their own culture too but learn the styles and codes of the political world which exists outside the educational system. The teacher should not restrain herself from giving her expert knowledge to students but should also allow them to build concepts based on their contextual and socially relevant knowledge.

Delpit asserts that it is essential to involve the adults of the community in the decisions regarding content and methods appropriate for their children. If they wish their children to learn and abide by the rules of the dominant culture because that will lead them to success, they have the right to demand for it and State should provide them with such education. No one from other cultures should interfere and decide what children of minority groups should study. She presents a wonderful thought that “We do not really see through our eyes or hear through our ears, but through our beliefs” (p.46) and thus the people from both the sides i.e., those who are in majority and those who are deprived from power should communicate their beliefs and needs with an open mind so that it can be decided properly and in a just manner what is best for the children of the poor and children of color.  

“Hello, Grandfather”: Lessons from Alaska

This chapter is not only enlightening but also an eye-opener for me and for people who want to work in the field of education. Delpit explains beautifully how important it is for an educational researcher to be one with the world and not view it as a subject of his/her study. Similarly, for a teacher it is very important to contextualize the subjects with the students’ cultural backgrounds so that they are interested in learning. Even if they are given the technical skills to master reading and writing, they may fail in it again because of the decontextualized nature of subject matter. Some of the practices in the classroom conflict with the values of a community. For example, solitary reading creates distances between people of a group who value connectedness among members. The traditional method of group reading and reading aloud in turn actually helps children to understand foreign concepts by discussing it and also maintains their interactions instead of assigning them individual tasks.

The most interesting fact that is brought to our notice is the effect of family atmosphere on literacy learning. Children from the communities where they are looked after by more and more people prefer learning anything new from human teachers while those who belong to middle-class families where toys and similar objects are used in interaction prefer computers and books to learn from. Thus, for the former group, oral communication of literacy becomes essential as they look for the context, relationship with individual delivering the instructions, gestures, facial expressions, etc. while the latter group of students depend more on decontextualized words (p.96). The Western academic worldview reinforces this system of over-dependence on decontextualized words. Children are expected to elucidate the steps of problem solving in words and the act of solving it is ignored. Every action/reaction has to be supported by a verbal explanation.

Children who belong to communities which allow them to build knowledge based on observations find it difficult to cope up with classroom setting where the teacher is the ultimate authority followed by the textbooks. They become increasingly dependent on external sources for knowledge instead of being independent. Even if we want the children to be able to articulate their actions, we should not force them to give up the sense of connectedness they bring to schools. Most of these problems can be solved if the teacher is from the same community as the students. They understand the problems faced by these students and are in a better position to solve them. One of the most intriguing lines of this book says that learning which involves experiences of the children, encourages their connectedness and allows them to construct knowledge on the basis of their observations and insights, enables the children to be satisfied with what they learn and apply it in life.

Education in a Multicultural Society: Our Future’s Greatest Challenge

In the last part of the book, Delpit talks about some possible solutions to the problems encountered in classrooms with diverse population. This part is particularly important for teachers to understand where they may be making mistakes and how they can prevent them. Delpit clearly categorizes these problems which often arise because of cultural differences between the students and the school. The students’ perception of teacher is shaped by the discourse styles and the interaction between teachers and students. Certain ethnic groups use explicit display of power at home and if teachers are not explicit about their authority then students do not feel respectful about the teacher. If teachers are not aware of the ethos of a community, they may misinterpret the behaviour of children belonging to these communities. For example, girls of certain ethnic groups find it difficult to speak up in gender-mixed settings while boys of some communities are overt about their expression of pleasure or displeasure. Teachers should take into account these different attitudes and deal with the students accordingly instead of judging them collectively as a group.

Delpit gives examples from African-American and Native American classrooms to explain how stereotyping of children from these groups by teachers negatively impacts the teaching-learning process. Teachers often tend to look at the students’ weaknesses instead of focusing on their skills and do not think it essential to work on their problems. She says that unless teachers become aware of the cultural background of children and their inherent talent, no matter what method they use, the teaching will be ineffective for these children. She suggests that the teacher training programs should expose them to programs which have been successful in educating poor children instead of telling them about the failures of educators in teaching children of ‘disadvantaged’ classes. She proposes that during the teacher education program, community members should be invited to classrooms to know their views about education for their children and the changes they may want in the system.

This book raises important issues about traditional progressive education and its implication on education of poor, black children. Delpit uses narratives of teachers, parents and students which give us a broader view of the problems faced in educating these children. Her language is simple and reaches a larger audience especially teachers. It acts like a guide to teachers in devising practices helpful for both students and themselves.

References

Delpit, L. (2006). Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom (2nd ed.). New York, NY: The New Press

Morris, C. (2010). The Effect of Process-Oriented versus Teacher-Directed Instructional Approaches with Students of Varying Levels of Social Development within the Community College. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/394483/The_Effect_of_Process-Oriented_versus_Teacher-Directed_Instructional_Approaches_with_Students_of_Varying_Levels_of_Social_Development_within_the_Community_College

The PSS Approach to Reading: Solution to the Reading Wars

The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 includes the section Learning to Read and Write under the heading Language and thus it is important to analyze briefly how early literacy as a part of language education in schools has been dealt with in the NCF. It says that speech, listening, reading and writing are the four communicative skills (NCF, 2005, p.40) essential for children to succeed in school. Instead of making the students sit quietly in classrooms, their speech should be looked upon as a way of expression and group-discussions among them should be encouraged. Listening ability teaches them to be attentive, respect each other’s opinions and interpret what is being said in different ways. Folklore and music can be used to make the compositions interesting for the students to listen.

In regard to reading, the use of memorization of information-stuffed books has been criticized and the up gradation of libraries with supplementary material useful and attractive for the students is recommended. The paper also brings to our notice the reasons for which students find it difficult to learn reading in schools. Some of the problems are-inadequate pre-service and in-service teacher training for reading pedagogy, inability of teachers to decide the approach (phonic or whole language) for teaching to read, decontextualized textbooks which make it boring for students especially the first-generation learners (NCF, 2005, p.41). Suggestions regarding measures that can be implemented to help students in learning to read include: providing print-rich environment, teaching letter-sound correspondence, encouraging children to write down their experiences and then asking them to read the same, for first generation learners, reading supplementary stories and poems taken from folklores and their cultural backgrounds may be helpful.

Expressing themselves through writing should be given more importance than writing essays or letters and other texts by simply copying from blackboards in a mechanical way. Thus reading and writing aptitude has been stressed upon from the beginning of schooling in order to ensure that all students gain mastery over them. As I mentioned above, there exists confusion among educators about the approach to teaching reading. This debate between phonics-based reading instruction and the whole language approach is not new and there are many arguments made in favour or against for both of these methods in the education field.

Phonics is a bottom-up approach for teaching children to read and spell words. In this method, the language is broken down into small components. It is a set of rules taught to students so that they can apply them while sounding out new words. It emphasizes that students should be able to speak the words out loud based on the way they are spelled. It is decoding the text by recognizing the sound-letter correspondence. This is where the difference between the scripts of English language and Indian languages emerges.

The English writing system consists of 26 letters and has sounds more than this, i.e., it does not have one-to-one correspondence between letter and sound. This is called as an opaque writing system. There are multiple spellings for the same sound, for example, too, two, to; be, bee; red, read (past tense), etc. There are combinations of two letters to make one sound which again sound different in different words, for example: break, appeal; toast, abroad, etc. Thus, it is not possible to decode the vast amount of vocabulary in the English language by applying a definite set of rules of phonics. Indian languages on the other hand have a script in which each letter corresponds to only one sound, i.e., one letter has only one corresponding sound and one sound has only one corresponding letter. This is a transparent writing system. Hence, it is easier to implement the phonic method to teach reading in Indian languages as compared to English.

The Pragat Shikshan Sanstha Approach to reading is an attempt to use this feature of Indian language (in this case, Marathi) to make it simple for children to learn reading. In this approach, phonemic consciousness is considered to be the first essential part of learning. Children are first introduced to familiar words relating to the objects/people they see around and are repeatedly asked to say them loud with emphasis on the pronunciation of each syllable of the word, for example the sound of ‘m’, ‘ma’, ‘k’ and finally ‘d’ in ‘makad’. Thus students realize that each word has small components which are associated with different sounds. Once the children are able to read and say the words correctly, they are taught how to write the letters and then the words which they form together. They feel with touch how the letters are written by using objects like tamarind seeds to form the letter and then they move their hands over it again and again. This helps them in remembering how to write the letters. After this, they are introduced with words and sentences which can be formed using that particular letter.

One of the drawbacks of phonics approach is that it tries to develop the students’ reading skills by decoding texts which are often meaningless and consequently fail to apply the skills effectively. This is not helpful for the children who belong to a background where there is a lack of exposure to print, since they do not get the chance to apply their reading proficiency for a long time. On the other hand, children who come from literate families build a strong vocabulary by reading meaningful texts along with proper pronunciations. Critics of phonics also say that the texts used for teaching to learn reading are meaningless and uninteresting for the children. Shobha Sinha in her article Acquiring Literacy in Schools gives many examples to show how the overdependence on phonics method actually makes reading, a difficult and dull activity for the students. But unlike other phonics-based reading instruction, in the PSS approach, words to be taught are selected in a way that children can relate to them easily, for example, ai (mother), mama (mother’s brother), etc.  Abbreviated vowel signs (matras) are introduced which allow them to read more and more words once they are able to read the letters.

PSS approach combines the whole language method with the phonics at this stage. Once students are able to read words and sentences after five or six lessons, they are given interesting and relevant poems and stories to read. Importance is given to meaning making of texts as a whole and since the children have already begun to acquire phonemic consciousness, breaking language into parts for decoding is not required. It gives opportunities to children for reading various types of stories, poems, etc. which are relevant to their socio-cultural context. Thus, they do not have to memorize a lot of difficult, decontextualized words (which is one of the criticisms of whole language approach).  

It is widely accepted that writing helps in improving reading skills of children (Teale & Sulzby, 1989). The PSS approach reinforces this fact by encouraging students to draw pictures and write down their experiences at home, school, the field visits they are taken for, etc. Initially their words are not comprehensible by adults, but when asked to read, they do read out what they have written. The teacher then writes down their account just below the pictures so that they gradually learn how to write what they can speak. The interesting thing is that the teacher does not completely point out their mistakes (grammatical, spelling, pronunciation), but accepts their thoughts as they wish to express. Gradually with the practice of reading, writing and talking to peers and teachers, the students themselves correct their mistakes. Thus, the joy of reading out their own experiences in school makes the reading-writing activity interesting for the students.

Berntsen (2009) rightly calls the PSS Approach as eclectic since it uses both the whole language and phonics method for teaching how to read. The phonics method prepares the children to spell and pronounce limitless words correctly, thus allowing them to read texts of varying levels. The whole language approach enables them to make meaning of texts without having to memorize a limited vocabulary. Students who undergo such a process of learning to read are able to read fluently and comprehend texts. This methodology is eclectic also in the sense that it focuses on children’s efforts to make meaning and not on their errors. The child is helped at every stage to improve giving everyone the chance to work towards their problems and finally gain mastery over the reading-writing skills. The PSS approach also effectively implements the recommendations made in the NCF 2005 for improving reading-writing competence of school going children irrespective of their background.

References

Berntsen, M. (2009). Teaching Early Literacy in Indian Languages. Learning Curve, newsletter of the Azim Premji Foundation, XIII, 38-40. Retrieved from http://azimpremjifoundation.org/pdf/LCIssue13.pdf.

Bomengen, M. (2010, September 23). What is the “Whole Language” Approach to Teaching Reading? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2010/09/23/What-is-the-Whole-Languagee-Approach-to-Teaching-Reading.aspx.

McGuinness, D. (2002). A Prototype for Teaching the English Alphabet Code. RRF Newsletter, 49. Retrieved from http://www.rrf.org.uk/archive.php?n_ID=95&n_issueNumber=49.

NCERT. (2005). National Curriculum Framework 2005. New Delhi: National Council of Educational Research and Training. Retrieved from http://www.ncert.nic.in/rightside/links/pdf/framework/english/nf2005.pdf.

Sinha, S. (2000). Acquiring Literacy in Schools. Redesigning Curricula Seminar 493, 38-42. Retrieved from http://www.india-seminar.com/2000/493/493%20shobha%20sinha.htm.

Teale, W. H. & Sulzby, E. (1989). Emergent Literacy: New Perspectives. In Strickland, D. & Mandel, L. (Eds.), Emerging Literacy: Young Children Learn to Read and Write. Reprinted in Richard D. Robinson et al., Issues and Trends in Literacy Education. Allyn and Bacon, 1996.