Evolution of Inclusive Education in AADI
Draft: Please do not quote

Contents
About AADI the Organization
AADI Education .......................................................................................................................

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URBAN EDUCATION PROGRAM
1. Centre for Special Education................................................................................................

6

2. Integrated Education............................................................................................................

14

3. From Integrated to Inclusive Education...............................................................................
A. Inclusive School
B. Whole School Development
C. Alternative Education Services

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4. Facilitating/Implementing Inclusive Education....................................................................

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RURAL EDUCATION PROGRAM
1. Center based special educational services begin.................................................................

28

2. Integrated Education 1994 to 2000.....................................................................................

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3. From Integrated Education to Inclusive Education: 2000 onwards.....................................

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AADI: The Organisational Overview
Action for Ability Development and Inclusion (AADI) (formerly called ‘Spastics Society of Northern
India’-SSNI) has been working in the field of disability and development for the last 33 years. It isconsidered a pioneer in the field of disability and its endeavor has always been to cater to the needs
and the rights of people with disability, by influencing policy, service delivery and technical resources
which addresses the needs of disabled people in an inclusive manner. AADI (then SSNI) wasestablished in New Delhi in 1978 aiming to provide services for people with cerebral palsy to enable
them to maximize their potential. The only services for people with multiple disabilities at that time
were available in hospital setups where even medical diagnosis was often tentative and misleading
assuming mental retardation for most children. Young children were not admitted into schools,
parents had no support, young adolescents and adults had no possibility of working andprofessionals (teachers and therapists) did not have an understanding of what needed to be done.
AADI directly addressed the above needs through its various programmes, orienting pediatricians
through internships and workshops on impact and management of multiple disability; providing
support to orthopedic surgeons through teaming with them for pre-surgery assessments andproviding crucial post surgery therapy; training approximately 500 teachers and developmental
therapists through two post graduate courses affiliated to Delhi University; training community
workers through community based rehabilitation courses, workshops for principals/Heads andteachers of schools in Delhi; counseling, training and creating parent support groups some of whichhave formed into NGOs themselves; advocating with Government for appropriate legislative changes
including working on the contents of Disability Act (1995) and successfully influencing the 2001
Census Plan to include people with Disability; and providing direct help to approximately 1700
families every year from Delhi and cities like Agra, Ludhiana, Chandigarh, Gauhati, Leh, Gwalior, andLucknow.
AADI’s dynamism in responding to changing knowledge has resulted in the development of anorganization that is reflective, proactive and capable of delivering quality services. It has been
evolving its processes based on learnings from its work and the paradigm shifts at international
level. It follows an approach, which stresses rights- right to participate in decisions regarding own
life, and freedom of choice and equal opportunities, inclusion, and adapting the environment to theneeds of persons with disabilities, and not the other way round. It is currently working at threelevels: Policy, Service delivery and Capacity building across geographical areas: urban and rural;across age groups: from infancy to old age; range of impairments- cerebral palsy, mental
retardation, autism, mental illness, multiple disability, hearing impairment, visual impairment etc.;
and across life domains such as Education, Health, Livelihoods & Occupation, Relationships, Leisure,
Shelter etc.

AADI Education
Ensuring the right to education of children with disabilities is one of AADI's primary objectives. It
began its journey as a small special school in 1978. Its education program has overtime undergone
numerous changes, evolving continuously, from a special school, to providing integrated education
support services, to becoming an inclusive school through reverse inclusion; attempting to makegovernment schools inclusive through whole school development; to the shutting down of the
inclusive school in March 2010; to finally focusing on facilitating inclusive education in mainstream
schools and thus, ensuring the right to education of children with disabilities.
This documentation makes an attempt to record briefly the history of the education program. It
attempts to explain the rationale which propelled changes in the school through its existence andrecord briefly the services it provided, thus, providing a glimpse of its movement towards inclusive
education. The evolving perspectives guiding its work have been shared below.
Initial Perspective: Provide Quality Special Educational Services
The motivation for starting AADI (SSNI) was the realization that the needs of persons with disabilities
in India went largely unmet, with 95% of India’s persons with disabilities, along with othermarginalized or severely disadvantaged groups not having a chance to access opportunities and eventhe most basic rights. There were no facilities or services available for persons with cerebral palsy in
Delhi. Even diagnostic facilities were absent. There weren’t any trained professionals, as there were
no courses looking at providing study and training in this area.
At that time all over the world, the main model for services to persons with disabilities prevalent
was of a center of excellence, where all services were available at one place. Thus, the aim was toprovide the best educational services in a holistic manner under one roof: special education,
counseling, therapy, vocational training, access to aids and appliances. The team was committed to
put in maximum efforts to help each child to reach their potential. Services were designed based on
the prevalent medical model of disability where disability was understood as a disease or condition
to be identified and treated. Soon after the center was or education was established and soon had avery long waiting list of children seeking admission.
By the year 1990, the center for special education and the organization had grown tremendously. It
was seen as the regional center for people with cerebral palsy and other neurological disabilities inNorthern India. SSNI started providing ongoing developmental and support services to over 1000
disabled persons and their families in rural and urban settings. The organization had started training
courses in special education and Basic Developmental Therapy and it also conducted training formany organizations. Initially the focus of training was to work at an individual with children withmultiple, sensory and intellectual impairments and families. The focus was on individual needs anddeveloping specific rehabilitation plans. Families came from neighboring states; and trainees andprofessionals came from all over India for clinics and courses.
Need for integrated Education
The need for integrated education came very early in the organizations work and SSNI took on thechallenge of integration. It wanted to showcase the potential of children and prove that children
could go to schools. Thus children who were considered capable of coping with a regular curriculum
were admitted in regular schools after 10th class. Soon it had integrated 60 children in the rural andurban schools.

2However there was a realization that further sustained efforts were needed. This realization beganwith the sharing of experiences by the students who had been integrated. By the early ‘90s the firstbatch of integrated students had grown up. Some joined regular schools and colleges. They started
bringing back information about their life outside which shook the beliefs driving AADI and made itquestion its work. Several students passing out of AADI found it impossible to adjust to the outside
world after coming out of the protected environment of the school. Unable to secure jobs,
transport, friends or community support, they felt miserable and their future seemed bleak. The
quality of education and therapy imparted was high but what had the organization done to remove
the barriers in their everyday lives which they faced on daily basis. AADI realized that even if
disabled persons developed competencies it did not guarantee their inclusion in the wider society.
Another influencing factor was an ODA monitoring visit to AADI in May 1995, by Sue Stubbs who wasat that time the Overseas Disability Advisor for Save the Children Fund. She made the critical pointthat integration does not mean trying to be the same as others: A child with disability will grow up as
a disabled adult, and needs to feel positive about that, rather than pretending differently. A childneeds to know that other people in society do discriminate, but that it is not their fault.
At the national level the Disability Act 1995 specified that all schools should be prepared to admit
children with disabilities. Till then the regular schools themselves had not given much thought toadmitting children with disabilities. It was assumed that they could only be taught in special schools
run by NGOs or by parents at home. Their needs were perceived to be relating to their particulardisabilities. Thus, they were forced to grow up in segregated set-ups, away from the mainstream.
There was hope of some changes in mainstream schools after the Disability Act 1995.
Thus to bring about effective integration of children in larger numbers an Integration Cell wasestablished in 1995. Training courses also underwent a change and began to include aspects ofgeneral and specific needs of integrated education
From Integration towards Inclusive Education
Numerous factors in the nineties pushed the organization to re-examine its perspective evenfurther. It reviewed its approach, thinking, priorities and changed its philosophy and its work. A
major factor was the disability movement started by disabled people in developed countries There
was a dawning of the understanding that what is important in the life of a person with disabilities isthe quality of life. The concept of empowerment of people and as to what methods are suitable forthis process began to be known. This unsettled SSNI as its approach was focused on making adisabled person as independent as possible through education, 'therapy', provision of aids andassistive devices. There was a need to work on the environment as well and bringing about
attitudinal changes.
This led to an overall change in the philosophy and a reorientation towards the rights perspective,
with the realization that there was a need to move from segregation to inclusion. The focus was now
on inclusiveness, and on changing society. This change in thinking became crystallized only by 2000.
This year marked the beginning of a new direction for SSNI. Reflecting this change very visibly was
the renaming of SSNI to AADI. AADI, as we are now called, was formally registered in 2002. The word
is from Sanskrit, meaning “The Beginning”. Changing the organization in accordance with this vision
was a big challenge. Inclusive education became the focus of the education program. Inclusive
Education aimed at changing the educational system, including the teaching methods andcurriculum systems, to include the diverse needs of each child. After extensive debates anddiscussion the rural and urban services began attempts to implement these changes. The United
Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2007) and the passing of the Right to3

Education Act (2009) further strengthened the belief for inclusive education. This understanding iscomprehensively reflected in the following summary by UNESCO.
• Inclusion is a process. It has to be seen as a never-ending search to find better ways of responding todiversity. It is about learning how to live with difference and learning how to learn from difference. Differences
come to be seen more positively as a stimulus for fostering learning, amongst children and adults.
• Inclusion is concerned with the identification and removal of barriers. It involves collecting, collating andevaluating information from a wide variety of sources in order to plan for improvements in policy and practice.
It is about using evidence of various kinds to stimulate creativity and problem-solving.
• Inclusion is about the presence, participation and achievement of all students. ‘Presence’ is concerned with
where children are educated, and how reliably and punctually they attend; ‘participation’ relates to the qualityof their experiences and must incorporate the views of learners; and ‘achievement’ is about the outcomes oflearning across the curriculum, not just test and exam results.
• Inclusion invokes a particular emphasis on those groups of learners who may be at risk of marginalization,
exclusion or underachievement. This indicates the moral responsibility to ensure that those ‘at risk’ arecarefully monitored, and that steps are taken to ensure their presence, participation and achievement in the
education system
Guidelines for inclusion: Ensuring access to education for all, UNESCO, 2005

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II
URBAN EDUCATION PROGRAM

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1
Centre for Special Education (CSE)
1978 to 2004

SSNI began as a small special education center in 1978. Its aim was the development of potential ofchildren with disabilities by providing intensive quality special educational services to children in theage group of three to eighteen years and to develop leadership qualities amongst students for futureself-advocacy.
Initially people with multiple disabilities, cerebral palsy in particular, and other neuromusculardisabilities were the focus of CSE’s work. In addition to the physical impairment, children also had
visual, hearing or intellectual impairments. Over the years it opened up to all children withdisabilities.
The first batch of 12 children began coming regularly in November 1978. CSE prioritized admission
for those children who had no alternatives in the mainstream and belonged to economically poorfamilies. Over the years, more than 50% of the student’s population belonged to this section 1.
Sections and Curriculum followed
The center focused on providing individual children intensive quality educational and therapy
sessions. The three sections were the primary, the formal (academic) and the non formal streams.
Some new sections called the observations sections were set up in 1995 and a transition group wasadded in later years. An attempt was made to ensure a smooth transition of students throughsuccessive grades and sections in the CSE, thus enabling the admission of new students on a regularbasis.
Students from the pre-primary and primary stream moved on to regular schools in theircommunities or to the formal or non-formal streams in CSE. The academic section included all
students who followed a regular school curriculum (CBSE) or an NIOS curriculum. The aim of theacademic section was to provide an enriching learning environment, for learning subjects, in smallclasses with individualized programming and attention. This stream catered to such students who
could pursue the syllabus of a regular school, but were prevented from doing so because the regulareducational institutions could not cater to their needs.
After the completion of Grade V, the focus was on in-depth preparation for Class X examinations,
CBSE and National Open School. The school provided all students with extra tuition classes to help
them with board exams. The formal stream or academic section followed a structured syllabus,
which incorporated Maths, Hindi, English and EVS with special input of remedial teaching techniques
and aids. This was done using special education and therapy techniques like aural reading,conductive education and augmentative communication. Different methods were adopted to makethe subject matter stimulating and interesting while building on the concept being taught.

1

For instance 63 % of the population in 1995-96 and 57% of the population in 1995-96 belonged to an income group of below Rs. 5000 per
month(Source: AADI Annual Report 1995-96)

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7

The non-formal stream/ functional literacy was an alternative for children who were unable tofollow a formal curriculum due to medical, physical, communication or cognitive limitations. This
was a larger group with up to 40 to 50 children in a given year. Over time the name was changed
from functional literacy to functional ability stream with the changed focus to holistic developmentof students. It was divided into the following groups: Pre-junior group, junior group, pre-vocational
training group, and 'severe' multi-disability group. Here the focus was on learning through practicalexperiences and application of concepts acquired in daily living. This was mainly done throughproject work. Each topic concluded with “Activity Week” during which various activities related tothe project work were conducted. The prevocational group was for a for students in the age group of
9 to 12 years, for whom clearing a Grade I syllabus was proving difficult but they had many otherskills. Thus the aim became to explore vocational options. For this group, the focus was on the futurewith six monthly reviews being held between the staff, the parents and the students.
The observation section (started in 1995) aimed to determine the relevant placement of thechildren in the various alternatives available (CSE, community centers, regular schools etc.). Eachchild entered the group with a particular focus. Information regarding the child’s rate of learning,learning style and ability related to past and present experiences, physical ability andcommunication potential was determined with special reference to the sensory, motor andintellectual disabilities.
A new section called the transition group was started with 7 students (age 15-17 yrs). The focus wasto help the students make a smoother transition from a school environment to a less structured
environment. Transitions happened frequently based on changing needs of the students. Here,
Curriculum transactions gave a lot of emphasis on activity based teaching. Thus many educational
projects were undertaken with the students, which demanded a more detailed and in depth perusalof certain topics such as systems of the body, elections and the parliamentary system of government
etc. Relevant trips were organized to support the project work. Special emphasis was laid on
newspaper and supplementary reading and the use of audio-visual media (TV, radio) to improve
listening skills and gather information. Conversational and basic English was included for all students
especially the senior group. While there were students who went to VWTC, assisting one day in8manning the canteen, there were others who joined the VWTC training, enabling a clarity of choiceand early identification of areas needing special rehabilitation attention for maximum integration.
Till 1992 in the center for special education in addition to formal education, children would come inand play, have physiotherapy sessions, attend theatre classes and undergo speech therapy sessions
and occupational therapy. The children made friends and discussed things amongst each other. In
1992 the syllabus was further structured and the regular CBSE and open school curriculum up to class
X was followed. Functional literacy curriculum was also developed for children who were notpursuing the academic curriculum.

Extra-Curricular Activities were a part of the regular curriculum for all sections. The schoolorganized leisure time activities like hobbies, outings and field trips; outstation trips drama, music,
painting, and crafts classes; and spiritual values curriculum and groups.
Efforts (with positive outcomes) was also made to include students in various organizational
activities. Some examples of this are- the students were involved in the vision mission workshop of
SSNI, in a panel discussion on integration conducted by SRS for the teachers training course. Senior
students attended and participated as self-advocates in various events.
Various awareness raising activities which involved the children in the school were organized by CSE
and they participated in the community. Students were also encouraged to advocate for physicalaccessibility in public places during a number of outings.
Developing leisure time skills was an important part of the curriculum in CSE, with a view to futurecommunity integration of moderate to 'severely' disabled children and as an immediate alternative
to older students who were already placed in the community. Hobbies were identified for the
students in the senior classes. These included painting, drawing, sports, embroidery and music,
Nature Club and Dance. Some of the students pursued swimming classes. Yoga was also introduced.

9

As a part of the ongoing school activities, several visits to places of educational interest andentertainment were organized every a year. The outstation trip was an annual feature andexcursions were specially planned to sanctuaries and historical places for experiential projectteaching.

10

The school also undertook computer sessions. This included individual and group sessions. A special
keyboard was purchased to help students with visual / physical limitations to access computers. All
children were given exposure to computers. The focus for some was communication as they were
nonverbal. Computer skills were also useful to play games, and practice their lesson. The “Akshar”
software which was installed was of great use to children learning through Hindi as a medium.
Everyone was constantly on the lookout for more adaptations and software which were disabledfriendly.
Rehabilitation services
Following the model of having all services under one roof, the school provided rehabilitation services
to all its students. Services for ‘therapy’, speech and communication, counseling and ‘behavior
modification’ were all available at the school. It developed appropriate aids and adaptations,
technology/assistive devices wherever required to address medical issues various health camps wereorganized.

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Working with others
Throughout its history it worked in cooperation with siblings, parents, schools, volunteers, andcommunities.

Parents and Families: Families and parents were actively involved in the school activities. All parents
were called in to share 6 monthly goals for their children. Home visits were made every month,
supporting the family of the child.
Many parents made efforts in their communities to carry the work forward for instance once aparent took the initiative to start an activity center at a local school with support from SSNI. Crèches
run by parents and volunteers in three areas of Delhi were started with the organizations support.
Volunteers: Volunteers were an integral part of CSE. There were times when volunteers were
mobilized to do follow up work and to provide support to students. Over the years many volunteers
became regular staff members.

Training ground: To achieve its objective to serve as a training and orientation ground, CSE offereditself as a practical/ awareness raising and training ground for different level of functionaries. It
12started being used as a training ground for students doing courses in special education, therapy andsocial work conducted by SSNI as well as other allied institutions in Delhi.
Regular School staff training: CSE staff and students held workshops in regular schools with the aimof sensitizing school teachers to the needs of children with disabilities.
Thus CSE continued its working till finally in 2004, the special school was transformed into an
inclusive school through a process of reverse inclusion.

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2
INTEGRATED EDUCATION
1995-2004

Integrated education as a process was being followed intermittently since AADI's (SSNI's) inception.
It became a structured program with the formation of the Integration Cell in 1995. The purpose of
the cell was to increase mainstreaming for people with disabilities and to facilitate the inclusion ofchildren into the community. The Integration Team (IT)provided the required intervention for thechildren who were already going to schools and sought AADI's support.
Besides educational support children were provided therapeutic intervention, aids, and assistive
devices to enable them to participate in all activities in the regular schools.

Opening doors
The team networking efforts opened up many schools 2 in the regular education system. Changing
teaching styles and classroom structures, creating access in the physical environment and resourcing
technical inputs from specialists in the field were some of the ways through which these institutions
worked towards including children with disabilities.
To facilitate the integration process over the years, efforts were also made to establish links with the
National Open School, various Government Senior Secondary Schools, District Education Officers,
IED Department, ICDS Department, NCERT, Institute of Home Economic, SCERT and Delhi University.
Through focused efforts, many more children with high support needs were integrated into many
prestigious schools and colleges in Delhi. The students became symbols of achievement for thelarger community- proof that there was a wealth of potential amongst children with disabilities,
which would remain hidden unless such services existed.
2

The following schools were partners in this initiative: Laxman Public School, Apeejay School, Tagore International School, Vasant Valley
School, Sriram School, Blue bells School, DAV Public School, St. Mary’s School, St. Columba’s School, KendriyaVidhyalaya School, Mobile
Crèches, Deepalya, SCERT, Magic Years Montessori School and Navyug School. By 2003, through networking new partnerships weredeveloped with more schools like Father Agnel School, KalicharanSaraswatiBalMandir, Delhi Public School, Springdales School, Raisena
Bengali School, ManavBharti School, Aggarwal Primary School, Primary School Mujesar, NalandaUchhaVidhyalaya, Modern VidyaNiketan,
Adarsh High School, Model School, and Rawal Public School.

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A Project on Translation and implementation of the UNESCO“Teacher Education Resource Pack – Special Needs inClassroom”. This was a two-year project in collaboration with and funded by UNESCO, which SSNI undertook in August
1998. It played a crucial role in determining the direction of the organization's work with schools and in strengthening its
belief in the possibility of inclusive education.
The broad aims of the UNESCO project were:Translation and implementation of the “Teacher Education Resource Pack – Special Needs in Classroom” which
was developed by UNESCOEnriching the pack with Indian experiences.

Modifying/revising the resource pack based on the feedback from field testing.

Awareness raising programmes.
Seeking community support to enhance the spread and quality of inclusive education.

Evolving appropriate strategies for information dissemination of inclusive education.
The findings of this survey were used as the basis of a series of regional workshops. An outcome of these events was that
UNESCO was urged to assist in the dissemination of teacher – training materials that could be used to facilitate
improvements with respect to meeting special needs in ordinary schools. It was also recommended that seven points be
kept in mind in carrying out this work.
1.
The need to develop national policies for teacher education that progress in a continuous fashion from the preservice stage through to the in-service stage.
2.
The importance of supervised practical experience as a major element of teacher education programmes.
3.
The importance of taking account of what has been referred to as the ‘hidden population’ of pupils with special
needs, that are children who do not have significant disabilities but who nevertheless experience difficulties inlearning.
4.
A necessity to increase flexibility of curriculum practice and teaching methods in mainstream classrooms inorder to be more responsive to the needs of individual children.
5.
The principle of self help brought about by encouraging teachers to develop skills of self evaluation as a meansof developing their practice.
6.
The importance of recognizing the value of collaboration amongst groups of teachers within a school.
7.
The need to help and encourage teachers to make better use of three sources of non-professional help in theclassroom – the pupils themselves; parents, relatives and others in the community; and paid ancillary help or
teacher’s aides.
Impact of Programme:Increased enrolment of children with disabilities in some of the clusters in the urban slums.

Increased interest in attending school for some children.
Teachers more conscious of those children who needed extra support.

Teachers also making sure that there was an increased involvement of children with special needs in theclassrooms.

Initial rethinking with teachers about building partnerships with parents for the educational programmes of theirchildren.

Changing attitudes and expectations, as remarked by one teacher – “Earlier I used to take the food to a child withcalipers sitting in a corner, but now I expect the child to come to me along with the others to collect his share”.
In one organization, support systems were being worked out – eg:
Increasing financial support to social entrepreneurs to work with all children.
Skill development for training children in activities of daily living.
Building and equipping resource centres to cater to the needs of at least ten children with 'severe'disabilities.

This was a result of IT team efforts to come up with strategies and solutions for inclusion in alliancewith the parents and schools, with the team being the main facilitator and the training provider,wherever necessary. Placement and preparation for easy transition of students from a special school
to mainstream schools meant an in-depth study of physical structures, curricular and pedagogicalpractices within the school.
Regular schools were supported by providing them information, training guidance and support including teacher training, peer training, promoting physical access and advocating for the
implementation of the Integrated Education for the Disabled (IED) Scheme. Besides this, it also
attempted to promote awareness regarding the right to education in schools.
15

At the child’s level, it worked towards preparing children for future integration, providing preintegration support wherein in depth work was done for preparation prior to their admissions.
Children in regular schools were supported for their individual needs-at home or at the schoolthrough the individual sessions.
Once they were admitted in a regular school, the children continued to be supported. Teams
provided the schools with individualized educational program for children admitted to the schools.
They provided guidance on teaching methods that were specially tailored for a particular child andassessed children for various needs. Detailed school related assessments were also done forchildren.
Active intervention by the team ensured that children in mainstream schools were integrated notjust in the classrooms but also in extra-curricular activities, including sports and picnics. The team
had also worked towards convincing some school authorities to conduct junior classes on the groundfloor and renovate toilets to make them disabled friendly.
The team conducted workshops for training teachers. Over the years numerous training wereconducted. Achievements in this area were possible through innovative teaching methods,
experimentation with new techniques and developing prototypes of aids. In-service training ofschool teachers was also undertaken towards enhancing full participation of students withdisabilities by ensuring that the necessary accommodations and adjustments are made by theidentified schools.
The Integration Cell team (IE) was small with only two people working for 4 hours a week. Given thenumber of staff the inputs were at present being limited to very few children. Thus, its work withvolunteers was crucial as they contributed their time and skills in teaching integrated students andwriting exam papers for them. They also provided invaluable support for therapy in homes.
To facilitate the integration process the team also worked with families. It initiated the formation ofa parent teachers group, preparing them for monitoring inclusive process and empowering them foran advocacy role, by working at the macro level with the education policy makers and Government
bodies for a larger impact.
Challenges faced
The IE team faced many challenges. Active follow-up taught the team to solve such problems and to
make realistic predictions for success. The greatest challenge facing IT team continued to be- toconvince school authorities about the child with disabilities need for education. Architecturalbarriers continued to form another obstacle to inclusion. Most schools/buildings were not equippedwith ramps, adapted toilets; making infrastructural changes necessary for successful integration.
Mainstream school authorities needed to be sensitized about the necessity to modify the evaluation
process for children with disability by developing methods involving a limited use of geometricalequipment and writing. The post – admission challenges the IT team faced were to work consistently
with the child, school staff and peers for the involvement of the child in all mainstream activities likesports and cultural activities.

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3
From Integrated to Inclusive Education
The vision of the special school radically changed from what it was in 2000 to what it became in2004. An internal review redefined the purpose of education to be to ensure that every student
gains access to meaningful knowledge, skills, experiences.
The special school began planning for turning into an inclusive AADI School (Primary) by April
2005. Consultations, brainstorming and wide reading to learn about best practices in India as well asother countries were undertaken with great enthusiasm. To widen the scope of diversity, admissions
to children across all disabilities began in September 2004 in the AADI school. Finally, in 2005 allchildren, disabled and non-disabled were admitted in the school, the school which was called the
AADI School.
AADI, based on its past experience and learnings, while recognizing disability issues as a rights issue
and based on the emerging new paradigm of educational services towards addressing the concerns
associated with access, equity and quality -initiated and undertook the TIE Project (2004-2007)
funded by REACH India(USAID), wherein it got an opportunity to begin implementing its ideologicalbeliefs about inclusion. The focus of the Project was not only addressing the needs of children withdisabilities but rather focusing on diverse needs of ALL children in classrooms.
The project goal was to initiate a collaborative process towards providing accessible, equitable andquality educational opportunities to all children with a specific focus on disabled children,
particularly the girl child. The four project objectives were:
o
o
o

o

To promote inclusive practices and culture in identified demonstration schools in Delhi
through a whole school development approach.
To influence existing policies at a micro (school) level to support inclusion of all children
within the identified demonstration schools.
To evolve appropriate and replicable service delivery model/s, which address specificeducational and social needs of children with disabilities (mild/moderate/severe) bothwithin and outside the educational system.
To collate and disseminate empirical evidence generated during the project towards theultimate aim of impacting macro level policies.

Based on these four objectives, the project’s four essential components became the:1. Five Mainstream Demonstration Schools to be developed across the districts of Delhi,
comprising Government Schools, through a “whole school development” approach.
2. AADI School to emerge as a model wherein children with disabilities and able-bodied children
will be provided meaningful learning opportunities in an inclusive paradigm.
3. Alternate Education Services to provide educational services for “out of school” children withdisabilities in a creative manner (mild/moderate/severe).
4. Research and Documentation to be a critical component of the Project. A qualitative research
design provided the empirical evidence during the project period.

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A. Alternative Education Services
The need for an alternative education service was apparent and imperative, even with figures ofchildren with disabilities being able to access educational services being examined at theorganizational level. AADI School itself could only address the needs of fifty to sixty children at atime. While in July 2007, a total of five hundred and sixty three children were registered for basic
services, out of which two hundred fifty one children were out of school, fifty four children had
dropped out of school and two hundred and fifty eight were in school but needed support to stay onin school.
With regards to home based services, the only advantage was that it shifted the onus of travel tothe team. Parents didn’t have to come to AADI with the child, as with grown up children it was afinancial and physical drain on the families to bring them often in the absence of accessible and safe
transportation options available. To some extent, as the main need was activities of daily living
management, it was best looked at within the home. Thus, to some extent this model was thought
to be appropriate. The drawbacks were- the teams found that for any orthotic & postural aid, theparents still had to come to AADI. Also children’s social needs were not being met through thismodel. Linking up with the community resources, to fulfill these needs to make the model more
appropriate was still required.
The cluster services required many more resources, and reached fewer children but it allowed
children a real opportunity to develop their developmental potential. Children’s educational,
therapy and social needs were met in this model and parents also found it satisfactory. Cluster
services soon became restricted to a few children. For these services to be really effective, it was feltthat the teams needed to simultaneously work on developing resources in the community which
would allow children to access those services, thus, allowing access to cluster services to a larger
number of children.
B. Whole School Development
Working with the Government schools
Working with the government general education system involved arriving at an understanding of theschool’s infrastructure, administrative systems and processes, the school population, school parent
relationship, relationship between administration and teachers, Relationship amongst teachers,
Relationship amongst students, Teacher student interaction. Working with the five government
schools directly over a period of two years was a challenging task, which seemed almost fruitless
because of the magnitude of challenges, the lack of knowledge about government schools, theevolving nature of the work process and the need to constantly retrain and orient staff to work withthe school because of staff attrition. Nevertheless, AADI made links with schools in the government
educational system for the very first time. An interactive dialogue has begun with teachers, students
and children belonging to government educational service delivery. There has been a tremendous
learning about the government school system, their functioning, the issues they face, its teachers,
students and to some extent their families and communities. The teams’ capacity has also
considerably increased and they are competent in conducting trainings, presenting and evaluating
information about the program. The enthusiasm of the leadership in the organization has not fazed
to work with the government schools in spite of the numerous setbacks and the snails pace of thework. There is a relationship with these schools and which one plans to continue working with them18with renewed efforts from the team’s side to understand how to bring the desired changes and theownership of the work to the teachers.
C. Inclusive School
In AADI School, the entire process of inclusion began much earlier with extensive discussions about
inclusion itself not only amongst the staff but all stakeholders, because the support for and belief ininclusion in the school was considered crucial for the success of an inclusive school. This support was
built up over time amongst the staff, students and parents. In preparation, before changing the set
up from a special school to an inclusive school there were meetings held with all the staff, students
and parents of the school. The concerns of student with disabilities were also addressed. The
process of sensitization started in their personal development, hobby classes and the morning
assemblies through role plays, games and activities followed by discussions, wherein they tried toshow the different dimensions and tried to make them understand how the group would have avariety of needs and differences or difficulties.
Meetings were also held with parents of children of the existing students with disabilities over a
period of three to four months to obtain their views on inclusion. The reaction ranged from people
being very happy to people expressing concerns and fears. At this point in time, the concept ofinclusive education was understood to mean -all children learning together irrespective ofdifferences and participation of all. After becoming an inclusive school in 2005 it catered toapproximately 140 children (disabled and non disabled).Developing inclusive teaching practice andpolicies was an important aspect of this journey. There were no readymade examples available
which could have been followed.
In an environment where the organization had total control and transformed its special school into
an inclusive school, it managed to move further from where it started, sustained by its belief ininclusive education. A belief emerged that inclusion would need to happen in every sphere of aschool for it to be truly inclusive. Finally, the comments made by a six - year - old child with disability
who had experienced both the special and the inclusive school which were shared by his mother,seem to say it all. She said ‘earlier her child would feel that he was different, that’s why he did not go
to a school where all the other children went and he felt upset about this. Now he feels that eventhough he is different he studies alongside all other children. He can play with all the other children
and tells other children when they want to run and play with him, that you go and run, I can’t run.
He realizes that he is different, accepts it but now he does not feel hurt, as he knows how to interact
with children without disabilities and they all study together’. In an inclusive school your disability
does not make you lesser than anybody else even though you may be different.
Post REACH, AADI School continued more or less on the same line as established during the Reachproject. In 2009 and 2010, each year, one new class was added taking the school from Nursery upto
Class IV. There were certain staff members who left and some went on maternity leave and had tobe substituted. One of the old volunteers was also inducted as a teacher based on her experience,even though she did not have the requisite qualification.
Its journey form finally ended in 2010. With the passing of the right to Education Bill in 2009 theteam became determined to implement this law and decided to close the school.

19

20

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS-Towards Inclusive Education Project

•
•
•
•
•
•

To promote inclusive practices and culture in identified
demonstration schools in Delhi through a whole school
development approach.
Diagnostic test in class VI in the five schools.
Foundation course in class VI in GBPSBV-SNP.
Anekta Mein Ekta training for the Assistant teachers of thefive schools.
Anekta Mein Ekta training for the TGTs of the five schools.
Intervention and modelling of practices fostering inclusion inschools.
In AADI School the final percentage achieved on the quality
checklist is 77.86%

•
•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

To evolve appropriate and replicable service delivery
model/s, which address specific educational and social needsof children with disabilities (mild/moderate/severe) bothwithin and outside the educational system.
Total number of children registered with AES is now 563.
Out of 563 children enrolled 468 have been retained and 95
children have dropped out from AES services.
75 numbers of children are placed from AES to cluster
services, special schools and formal schools.
56 community resources were identified for collaboration
with AES, out of which 40 resources are being utilized by theteam for placements, disability certificate and IQ assessments.
In past three years total 48 case conferences were held.
In all 73 team meetings were held.
47.55 % of the goals set for 167 children have been finallyachieved in AES–BS
Parent Feedback Form -In the final year the percentage of
positive responses achieved was 65.46%.
Cluster parent collaboration tool-The project end percentage
achieved is 49.16%. Thus there is an increase of 22.78%.
In all a total of 35 children were registered in Cluster Services
Draft life skills Curriculum framework has been developed.

21

To influence existing policies at a micro (school) level tosupport inclusion of all children within the identified
demonstration schools.
Admission Drive in catchment area of four schools.
254 out of school children admitted in the four schools.
Parents-teachers meeting in the five schools. Networking
with Savera an N.G.O to facilitate Non-formal educational
input to out of school children identified by the team.
In AADI School a total of 124 children were enrolled. The total
number of children with disabilities in the school is 41. In theend the girl population was limited to 44.35%
The final percentage of tasks of the access audit completed
remains as in 2006 which is 76.92% in AADI School
In AADI School 75.8% of the children enrolled have beenretained (94 children have been retained).

To collate and disseminate empirical evidence generated during
the project towards the ultimate aim of impacting macro level
policies.
•
CMED invited AADI to act as a consultant in designing thestate plans with regards to ‘children with special needs’ for‘Sarva Siksha Abhiyan’. AADI also participated in a meetingfor the district plan development of ‘Sarva Siksha Abhiyan’.
•
AADI supported the Universal Elementary Education Mission
Office of Delhi to organise a consultation workshop of NGO
for inputs on children with disabilities.
•
AADI participated in the national consultation of the MHRD
Action Plan for Inclusion in Education of children and youth
with disabilities•
AADI prepared a draft UEE action plan for children withdisabilities for April 2006 to March 2007 and submitted it to
the UEE Mission office.
•The team actively participated in formulation of guidelines
for the State SSA societies, for the evaluation of children withdisabilities in Schools•
Consultants for an evaluation of impact of SSA for children
with disabilities in seven states for MHRD•
AADI conducted a training of thirteen master trainers at therequest of SCERT for identification of children with disabilities
in the Directorate schools. These master trainers
subsequently trained up to 2429 teachers•
The Directorate of Education agreed to develop twenty five
focus school which would be model inclusive schools•
AADI developed a module on inclusive education for SCERT
which will be used to train all the teachers of the Directorate.
AADI will train at least fifty master trainers in this module
who will then in a cascade model of training, train all thegovernment teachers in the Delhi•
A presentation was made on teaching strategies for inclusive
education by AADI to all the heads of SSA/IEDC in national
workshop on IED•AADI was invited as a consultant by NCERT in the planningmeeting for the development of an Index of Inclusion which isone of the items in the Comprehensive Action Plan on
Inclusive education developed by the MHRD

4Facilitating Inclusive education
April 2010 to March 2013

After the implementation of Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, AADI focus became
working with mainstream schools by supporting and training the teachers (capacity building) to workwith children with impairments. After extensive discussions and dialogue with children withdisabilities, families and schools a final decision was taken to close the primary inclusive school.
Children with disabilities and without disabilities got admitted in to neighboring government andprivate schools as chosen by the families.
2010

Number of Children admitted

Children with disabilities
Children without disabilities
Total

65
60
124

Number of schools admitted
into
50
10
60

Thereafter all children were to be supported in getting into schools, staying on and provided all theout of school support they required. Teams follow up children with disabilities in the mainstream
schools as regularly as required. Thus the focus was on working with different stakeholders so as tofacilitate the process of inclusion of children with disabilities in schools and strengthen theimplementation of the Right to Education. The three pronged strategy is depicted in the diagram
below.

Direct Service
delivery

Advocacy

In School

Right toeducationandOut Of SchoolChildrenCapacity Building (PreService
And
In-service Training)

Direct Services
Working with children
It began by identifying schools for the children and ensuring they were admitted. For many children
it was the first time in a regular school. Thus one child was admitted at the age of eleven years. AADI
attempted to create enabling environments leading to inclusion of children with different types of
impairments- physical, vision, hearing and intellectual impairment.
22

To facilitate inclusion teams had to work over time for creating an understanding amongst theclassmates about their classmates with disabilities and vice versa. Through various activities it
helped to create an understanding amongst classmates. One of the aspects was helping children
understand the nuances of helping behavior as children tended to become over protective ofchildren with disabilities. Teams also attempted to establish collaborative learning processes in theschools and demonstrating strategies of pairing and supporting each other.

Team worked on the challenges of children with disability not being included by emphasizing on
adaptations and accommodations in classroom teaching. They demonstrate classroom interventions
through regular visits to school. During these visits it works with the child, sometimes the classroom
and the teachers, thus modeling various teaching strategies for inclusion. Ensuring safety for a childincluding children with disabilities has been an important area of capacity building for teachers. It
has had to work on the acceptance of diverse forms of communication being used in the school. It
encourages peers to use communication aids besides helping a child with disability for theircommunication needs. Team demonstrated inclusive games during free play to increase interaction
with peers. The need for adaptations and aids is also addressed by the team. Teams have worked
towards creating a broader sense of ownership and responsibility for a child with disabilities andchallenging some harmful practices. Children's health, self care and nutritional needs are also
followed up by the teams and shared with the teachers. Children are also provided academic
23

support outside the school. It identifies community resources to help the children in this support,
wherever required.
Working with teachers
A lot of effort was made to work with the teachers. Teachers were supported in learning how toaddress the learning and other needs of children with different types of impairments-visual,physical, hearing, and multiple disabilities. A detailed profile of each child admitted was shared withthe teachers and they were given time to become familiar with the children’s communication andlearning styles. Working with a child with autism was a new challenge for teachers. The teamemphasized the need for structure and schedules in school activities.
Besides working with the teachers the teams attempted to work with the resource teachers coming
to school. These teachers are appointed by the government and coming very infrequently to theschool. If they do come in they take individual sessions with the child, which over time diminishes asense of responsibility on the part of the teacher towards child with disability. Teams have tried at
the individual level to build a relationship with these teachers and encouraged them to share allclass strategies with teachers so that teacher can teach children even when the resource teacher is
not present. Some of the resource teachers began working with children within the class after suchdiscussions.
Opening a dialogue between the teacher and the parents was important as many a times the school
teacher did not know what was happening at home and how to work with the parents for the child’sdevelopment. AADI has made headway in working with teachers. Many teachers are open and eager
to work with the child with disability, are cooperative, are willing to work with the child, are able toidentify the strengths of the child, use the communication book, are able to modify the TLM’s.
Still the team continues to face many challenges while working with teachers like the over emphasis
on writing excludes children who have an impairment which impacts their hand function. Exclusionof children with disability from some activities such as play, school functions, classroom activities
need to be constantly worked upon especially with the new teachers. Some teachers can be quite
resistant to change and continue to have no expectations from the child with disabilities. Often
planning for child with disability in class as well during exams continues to be an issue. It is importantto have teaching practices which would ensure learning for all.
Working with schools
At the time of admission of children with disabilities in the mainstream schools, a lot of effort went
into convincing the school to admit the child and working with the school Principal and the teachers
and their attitude to convince them about the need to include the child into the mainstream. The
team had regular review meetings with Principals and Head Masters. Teacher trainings wereplanned. Following which the team met teachers to discuss issues, linked the strategies talked about/content of the training to class situation.
Ensuring physical access to the schools in the form of making permanent and makeshift ramps,
creating access in toilets, ensuring cleanliness and hygiene in the toilets, access to laboratories andbringing the class to the ground floor which could be accessible for a child with disabilities- weresome of the issues related to access that had to be worked upon. Often ensuring the availability ofthe support staff in the school was a big challenge.

24

A lot of effort went into making the school understand that the child needed to be included in all theactivities of the school such as in the school functions, when going for school picnics and outings.
Ensuring safe keeping of mobility aids in the school itself was another area of intervention by the
AADI team. Exclusionary practices towards children with disabilities had to be discouraged andworked upon. Frequent transfer of teachers continued to pose a big challenge as by the time theteacher was sensitized and trained, a new teacher would come in and the work with that teacher
had to start all over again.
There were many challenges faced when working with the schools at a larger level: Funds given to
the schools for stationary are not used; the strength of children is increasing and there are notsufficient classes & teachers; the teachers expected team to communicate messages to family;
physical infrastructure remain inaccessible; children were at times not included in extra curricular
activities; schools refuse to arrange for writers; teachers are not there in classes and are busy doing
administrative duties and the surroundings of the school were not clean & gate of the school wasleft open which was a big safety issue.
Some schools wanted to hold activities with only children with disability separately during disability
week. The team intervened & facilitated the activities with the entire class including children withdisabilities. However, often there would be limited choice of activities as they were sent by thehigher authorities. Often with the appointment of new principals/Head Masters, this would be amatter of concern as the rapport and the understanding built towards inclusion of the child withdisabilities would have to reworked upon. School toilets were often not well kept. Team spoke to theprincipals, shared need to train the support staff to guide the small children as to where are they
suppose to sit, then flush, wash hands, maintain hygiene.
There were many achievements as well with many schools cooperating towards the inclusion ofchildren with disabilities. The team would help the teachers prepare modified exam content forchildren with disabilities. List of accessible venues was given to schools (for outings, picnics, etc).
There was a constant dialogue going on between the teams as well as the AADI internal processes
with the team referring newer children with impairments or issues to careplan for their assessment
and planning.
Working with Families and Community
Families played a very important role in sustaining the process of inclusion. Without theircontribution and efforts AADI would not have been able to undertake the challenge of inclusive
education.
Keeping the families motivated in face of challenges was a major focus area for the team. On hearing
negative comments from the schools, parents would begin to feel insecure about putting their childinto such a situation. It was important to encourage parents not to become scared but look at the
future of their child and persist in challenging negative attitudes.
Many schools initially demanded that parents should stay with the child in the school. It wasobserved that children would get too attached to the parent or support staff present in the class andthat it actually prevented formation of teacher-child and peer-child relationship besides interferingwith the child’s learning. In such instances the team worked out a process of gradual withdrawal of
the parent from the class and the taking over by the teacher and also prepared children with theskills of being alone in the class.
Teams facilitated parents to focus on children’s abilities and strengths. For instance when a child wasfacing difficulties in writing at school and the parents were becoming stressed about this matter, the25

team directed their attention to the child’s strengths, encouraged them to accept a different waysof fulfilling a need and respect differences in the pace of accomplishing a task. Thereafter it provided
them towards alternatives available for writing.
Teams also guided parents on an individual basis about the use of wheelchairs and communication
aids, supported them to make disability certificates, about parenting skills like the effects of overprotectiveness, the need for revision of school work at home to support the child in academics. In
some instances the team had to meet siblings of children with disabilities to seek their support inrevising school work at home, especially in cases where parents were not literate. It also made aneffort to work with siblings on accepting and dealing with issues arising between them mainly
through discussion about interdependence and sharing with them the ways they could support eachother.
Working on ensuring inclusion for the child with the parents meant dialoguing with the parents ofthe merits of having an accessible, ground floor accommodation; working with overprotective
parents; convincing parents to use aids- wheelchairs, communication aids; working with the siblingsof the child with disability; and working out possibilities with the parents in the absence of support
staff in school and even training the caregiver/support staff.
Capacity Building
As the focus was influencing general education to become inclusive through capacity building. It
also began working with thirty six Bodh Shiksha Samiti 3 schools in Alwar, Rajasthan and Eicher
School as a technical agency for capacity building of the organizations to adopt inclusive education.
It is currently working with twelve public and private schools using the whole school development
approach.
Advocacy
Advocacy work happens continuously at the micro level when interacting with schools. Teams also
advocate for policy changes at the macro level as well.

3

Bodh is an organization working in the field of general education in the districts of Alwar and Thanagazi in Rajasthan, India. For details
please see the two attached detailed reports

26

II
Rural Education Program27

1Center based special education services
AADI’s work in rural India started with a rural program being initiated in 1981, in Faridabad district,
Haryana. From the time of its inception, the rural program has been providing integrated,
community based services to persons with disabilities. One of the main areas of work is to address
the needs of persons with disabilities in the field of education.
AADI began working with nine children and their families. It was the first rural rehabilitation program
project in India to work with people across disability 4. At the beginning, a center was set up at theDayalpur village of Faridabad. Slowly, this work expanded to include two more centers located in
Tigoan (Tigoan) and Arya Samaj Mandir (Ballabgarh), where children with disabilities and theirfamilies would come for need based services. As of today there are 62 such village level centers.

For every child who would come to the centre, an analysis of his/her special learning needs was
carried out, which would determine the tasks to be undertaken with the child, with a teaching
programme worked out to suit the special need of the child. Basic reading, Maths and language skills
were taught to the children with intellectual impairment and children with ‘normal intelligence’ 5were taught all academic subjects like in a regular school.
Apart from the ongoing groups of children with hearing impairments, other groups were also
started. These were of young children moderately affected by cerebral palsy; an older vocationalgroup for young adults with cerebral palsy; two stimulation groups with very young 'severely'
affected children with cerebral palsy in Dayalpur and Tigaon and a special class for children withintellectual impairment in Ballabgarh. The groups would come for five days a week. Later across4

It included children living with polio, hearing impairments, speech impairments, cerebral Palsy, Intellectual impairment, deterioratingneurological conditions , congenital /birth defects, orthopaedic conditions, deformities as a result of illness (post T.B malnutrition ) ,Epilepsy being some of them5This was the terminology followed at that period of time28

impairments group sessions were also organized. After assessments, individualized goal making
helped children learn. The team developed a curriculum as well for these groups. Slowly the
integration of children with hearing impairment and cerebral palsy had also begun.

The team organized extracurricular activities like once a week integrated assembly, games likecarom and plays during assembly, general knowledge sessions and clay modeling. For the first time,
a comprehensive syllabus for the hearing impaired was developed up to grade III, which included an
adult education component for the children leaving school. This included language, Maths, reading
and speech areas. Regular end of term assessments for all were reinforced by monthly assessments
for the groups with hearing impairments. This proved valuable in understanding children’s ongoingprogress. The programming for the older vocational group emphasized on projects, leisure time
activities, community skill building, educational trips and outings and regular assessments being
carried out, with six monthly goals being planned.
Parent involvement and partnership was a crucial ongoing focus. Case conferences were held withparents for all regular home management children. Clear cut goals for the team were made in
consultation with them.

In the early nineties…..
A revised admission policy and detailed assessments of intellectual functioning made it possible forthe team to further separate the group of intellectual impairment students to form a group withstudents aged 9 to 13 years with 'I.Q’s of 30-44'. The focus, here was on building of doing tasks,
attention skills, independent /work habits and basic educational concepts, with a view to preparing
the children for the functional education and vocational skill training in our vocational work training
centre unit.
Apart from those receiving services at home on account of the 'severity' of impairment, or lack oftransport facilities, the sessions for group of children with cerebral palsy were transferred to thehome twice a month. This made a very positive impact on children.
To ensure an interaction of children from different categories and groups, a house system of 4 houses
was initiated. Assembly and work responsibilities were divided accordingly. This worked well, andbrought a spirit of healthy competition.

29

This new syllabus for the hearing impaired group was field tested and modifications introduced. A
new language list and the pre-vocational syllabus were also completed. This helped to focus and plan
for all intellectual impairment and 'severely subnormal' 6 categories, accurately, keeping their
prognosis in mind.
With the weekly visits of a special educator from Delhi, the intellectual assessments of a number ofchildren were carried out. With these results and clear recommendations each child was grouped
correctly and if need be, the goals revised based on the assessment results. Besides this, speech,
hearing, functional vision and feeding assessments were carried out. Accurate receptive expressive
language levels were ascertained using the REEL assessment. This helped continue a language
programme , with severely affected non verbal cerebral palsy quadriplegic children. Extracurricular
activities including clay modeling, wall painting, games and drama were initiated for all groups
A major emphasis was on different aspects of integration involving: Linking with existing services(education, health, employment and government), awareness raising and individualized functional
programming with the aim of integrating the disabled into family / community. As preparation for
integrating the hearing impaired children and children with Cerebral Palsy into regular schools, anawareness group was formed which looked into the aspects of networking and awareness raising in
the local schools. Occasion like Holi, Republic Day and School day were an excellent opportunity tointeract with and raise awareness in the local community, schools and the Panchayat. The AADI staff
worked closely with the staff of the local Government schools. The syllabus that the team focused on
was modified to facilitate integration with a decision being taken to base the end of term
assessments on the Government school exam system. An assurance was given by the schools that thechildren with disabilities would be allowed special concessions, if they wished to appear as private
candidates for any exams. By March, 1987, most of the ‘severely’ children were ready to sit for class
5 exams.
Parental involvement and participation was very important and case conferences were often held at
the homes of the children attending the day centre with the parents and the staff sitting down
together to set new goals and to assess the previous term’s programme. In fact, the parents often
volunteered to help out with the education therapy programme when the trained staff got busy withother activities. A advisory committee consisting of the parent community, the rural rehabilitatorsand some Delhi – based professionals was formed, as an effort towards democratic problem solving
and decision making. This group consisted of a cross section of people with different abilities, skills,
resources and different socio – economic strata.

6

This was the terminology followed at that period of time30

2
Integrated Education
As mentioned above, the vision of the program changed from 1993 onwards. It went from providing
center based special educational services to developing sustainable holistic Integrated Education (IE)
programs, in the rural and the peri-urban areas of Ballabgarh block of Faridabad district. While
children with impairments like polio were already going to regular schools, children with other kindsof impairments were not able to access local educational services. With a “quality of life” focus
persons with disabilities role in decision making increased.
The work focused on bringing about a change in the attitudes of village level workers, Government
officials, Panchayat members as well as identifying regular schools, so as to provide equal
opportunities for education to persons (children) with disabilities. Attempts were made to influence
regular school practices by supporting capacity building of teachers; assisting in the preparation ofsuitable materials for use in schools (where disabled children were integrated) and supporting
schools to access funding and other human and material resources that would help in the
integration of persons(children) with disability.
To ensure sustainability, local level teams of resource workers were developed. They were attached
to schools, the non formal center, Balwadis etc. and they worked as intermediary remedial
teachers 7. Empowerment of persons with disabilities and parents to take informed, independent
decisions became an integral part of the programs work. A lot of preparation went into making large
scale attempts at educational mainstreaming, largely aimed at three target groups- the parents, thestudents and the teachers/Principals of regular schools.
This movement into the community away from the centre was the first step in the decentralization
process, the second step being the setting up of sustainable services with the local available
infrastructure, and transfer of skills to persons in the community.
The program provided assistance at three levels:
The basic level workers were persons from the committees working as volunteers. They performed
the role of mobilizing the communities, identifying resource persons / groups and linking with
community level health and education systems. Some village volunteers were trained in early
identification and basic management of disabilities.
The Intermediary workers were also from the local rural and peri-urban communities. With theirtraining in deaf education, polio management, rehabilitation and vocational rehabilitation they
made programs, supported parents and interacted with educational institutions for integration.
The specialized level provided support through continuing training focusing on specific problem
solving of individual cases, documentation of experiences and specialized assessments andprogramming.

7

Till date there are 30 remedial teachers working in the community31Integrated Education (IE) Programme
The experience in mainstreaming children into regular schools highlighted the crucial need to form
an “Integration Cell”(IC) . Therefore, in order to provide a coordinated system for collecting
information, expanding our efforts and providing relevant IEPs, an ‘Integration Cell’ was being
formed. The challenges of a successful IE programme were enormous, requiring intensive inputs andconsistent follow up of persons with disabilities at both, the pre and post integration stages. At thesame time, for the programme to be successful in the long run and to achieve a fair amount ofsustainability, it was also crucial to support and train regular school teachers, principals and parents
in the remedial programme. Attitude change in the community, peer preparation, consistentmonitoring, evaluation and documentation of the programmes were all crucial areas requiring fulltime manpower resources.
Working with children
Some of the activities taken up by the team were:• Identifying pre-integration training needs of children with disability• Forming homogenous, time – targeted, skill training groups of children with disability• Identifying and screening children with disability suitable for integration with regular schools• Placement of children with disability in regular schools.
• Specialized technical assessments of identified children with disability undergoing
integration training and follow up (e.g. visual perception assessment etc)
• Planning Individual Education Programmes (IEP)• 'Remedial' teaching of identified children with disabilities• Identification, referral and follow – up of specialized medical care of children with disability• Periodic reviews were done to monitor impact of programmes.

Teams also made regular school visits and home visits to follow up children’s programmes. Regularschools visits were made in order to provide inputs in the areas of education, communication,therapy, communication etc. to the students admitted in schools. Many of children with disabilities
such as cerebral palsy, intellectual impairment, hearing impairment etc. started participating equallywith their non disabled peers, both academically and in the extra-curricular activities, as part of the
inclusive education programme in different schools of Faridabad district.
Every year, more and more children with disabilities were mainstreamed and supported through ourwork. Focused attention was paid to ensure active participation of children with disabilities in thevillage play groups as well. Many children were registered under the Integrated Education32

Department scheme, in which children who study in private recognized schools are given
scholarships, aids and appliances.

The formation of various advocacy groups such as a children’s group to address various disability
related issues empowered children. This process became a source of not just tackling any issues thata child may be facing but also became a vehicle of forming an affirmative identity.
Working with Teachers
A lot of work was undertaken with school teachers for increased participation of children withdisabilities in the classroom, within the school, in the cultural and play activities undertaken in theschool. Their positive attitude was important for successful integration of persons (children) withdisabilities within these schools. One on one sessions, training sessions- were held with the teachers
to better equip them in working with children with disabilities.
Working with the School
Visits were made to identify and establish links with regular schools for future placements. This wasfollowed by counseling and preparation of students, peers, teachers, Principals of these schools,
with an eye towards integration. Information regarding strategies for successful integration werealso shared. Recommendations were made for aids and assistive devices necessary for successful
integration.
To facilitate peer interactions, child to child programs were held and participation in regular culturalactivities of the school was encouraged. Awareness raising activities to promote abilities of persons
with disabilities were held in these schools. Specifically for children with multiple disabilities andmental disabilities, the challenges of integration were found to be many. Being written off usually as‘langda-loola’ or ‘pagal’, a much greater emphasis had to be placed on awareness raising of theirabilities, along with functional skill development. One of the activities of such as effort was theperformance of a play, ‘Ashtavakra’- a story from Indian mythology, focusing on the abilities of thedisabled, the issue of Karma and the equality of human beings. The positive impact of the play could
be gauged by the reactions of the audience who watched the play and instantly said “what thechildren have shown through this play today is something we will never forget in our lifetime” and“any support required in mainstreaming, we are there for you”. Such activities helped raiseawareness at the school level.
The discussions held with the local schools played a very crucial role in this process, which involved
focused awareness raising and the provision of information sharing. While some schools Principals
33were quite open to this ‘innovative’ idea, others were initially reluctant. Skillfully motivating those
who were reluctant and eliciting the support of the others, the integration team worked towards
making the mainstreaming of children with disabilities a reality.

D. Working with the Family and Community
Families were an integral part of the efforts towards integration. Preparatory counseling sessions
were held for integration (individual and group sessions). Attempts were made to identify andaddress issues which parents had regarding integration; transfer appropriate teaching methodology
to parents through home visits; training of parents to be facilitators for social integration at home
and in regular school settings and training parents to be facilitators, linking persons(children) withdisabilities between regular schools and specialized services. Parents self help groups were also
initiated. Parent teacher group meetings to review progress and for information updates were also
facilitated. Discussions about children's progress were held with each family.
The parents, who were initially apprehensive about the whole idea of mainstreaming, needed a lotof support and information regarding its feasibility. Thereafter, the initiative taken by the parents
proved to be quite strong, with them identifying the schools that their children would go to and evenmaking the initial contact. Parents also took on a wider role- as remedial teachers and as liaison
personnel between the regular school and the specialized set-up. Parents, who were initiallyreluctant to move away from the security of a specialized set up, were now convinced that not only
was integration possible, but also necessary. This success motivated other parents and the entire
team of rehabilitators to now view integration as a possibility for even the multi- disabled and themildly mentally handicapped, resulting in more placements from these categories into regularschools. Parents who were earlier hesitant about their roles and contribution in the project forinclusive education, were not only going to schools with greater confidence and the specialized set
up, but were also performing their roles as remedial teachers. The greater ease with which theparents focused on the academic achievement together with the need for social aspects ofintegration enabled the team to initiate the developing of the indicators of achievement for inclusive
education. In essence, alongside the preparation of the students, parent preparation for inclusion of
their children into regular schools, was a major thrust of the work undertaken. This essential
component of our work enabled greater parental participation, further leading to development ofpotential leaders amongst them.
Attempts were made to establish links with the Government organizations, NGOs and individuals tofacilitate integration as well. Linkages were formed with various professionals with expertise indifferent skill areas- such as a doctor, a lawyer, an arts and crafts expert, a carpenter, a hearing aid
repair person etc. The idea was to facilitate participation and inclusion of persons (children) withdisabilities by tapping on the skills and local knowledge of the village resource people. During this34

time, simultaneous preparation was also done to prepare regular schools to accept these children as
well as to train parents as remedial teachers.
Through many of AADI’s legislative and advocacy initiatives, attempts were made to create access inpublic transport, create ramps in cinemas and make the play ground accessible. With the coming of
the new law - The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full
Participation) Act, 1995, various awareness generation activities were undertaken in the villages forthe dissemination of information. It was felt that all these endeavors directly impacted the inclusionof children with disabilities in the various spheres of their lives including the educational pursuits.
The Persons with disabilities Act places the responsibility with the Government to ensure thatchildren with disabilities wanting to study further should not be discriminated against and thatappropriate measures are taken to ensure their inclusion and retention.

35

3
Facilitating Inclusive Education
2000 onwards

Introduction
By the year 2000, children with disabilities were settled in the regular schools and positive results werevisible in terms of participation and progress of the children in education and other non-curricular
activities. Due to this, parents, school teachers and other individuals started feeling more confident
about working with children in regular schools. The reach of the program was also increased in theseyears from 40 villages to all 83 villages in the district, which in turn, had a huge impact on the number ofadmissions in the schools there. In the year 2000-2001, only 40 children with disability were studying in
mainstream schools but by the year 2002, around 200 children with disabilities started going to schools.
Year
NumberofChildren

20002001
40

20012002
215

20022003
219

20032004
235

20042005
225

20052006
223

20062007
231

20072008
309

20082009
308

20092010
366

20102011
286

20112012
270

This program worked towards ensuring that every child with disability, irrespective of the kind, category
and degree of disability, is provided meaningful and quality education in the geographical zone that the
program covered. This thinking facilitated the sending of children with disabilities to schools at an early
age just like other children. Children with disabilities also started studying and learning in schools andmaking friends in schools. Children started participating in the regular activities of schools just like theirsiblings.
Impact of Government Policies
A major achievement was that the Education Department became open to discussing the progress madeby children with disability as well as the difficulties faced by them in settling in regular schools. It was
important to not only create physical accessibility and ensuring that the teachers were trained but also
work towards inculcating the right attitude towards a child with disability in both the teachers and thecommunity at large.

In 2000, the Government of India introduced the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a flagship programme of
the Government to achieve Universalisation of Elementary education in India. The SSA ensured that theGovernment schools were now unable to say no to children with disabilities. Regular visits, meetingsand sensitization exercises helped to overcome a very stereotypical idea and understanding of disability
amongst school personnel. Many challenges remained but schools had to further change and make aneffort to accept children with disabilities with their varied capacities and needs in a more inclusive
manner. Finally, the seed was sown for inclusion.
Right to Education (RTE) was passed in 2009 and became a law. Schools in Ballabhgarh were anyway
taking children with disability under SSA programme but RTE created a pressure on the school
education system. Creating physical accessibility in the schools became a major focus for theGovernment and finally, in the year 2013, money started coming in for the transport cost at theindividual child level to support child with disability for his/her to and fro journey between the school
and the house. The mothers of children with disabilities were given priorities to open the Bank accounton their names to transfer the scholarship money for their children. An indirect achievement of this was
36

20122013
294

that the mothers who were never given much of an opportunity to operate a bank account before this,started learning basic banking skills in order to operate the account for her child with disability.
However, with the coming of the resource teachers, some not so welcome practices also came in. They
brought the idea of exclusion in the form of home based education. They de-motivated parents to send
children with high support to schools who were earlier in schools. They started visiting homes forsessions on weekly/ fortnightly basis. Parents of children with disabilities accepted this practice as it
seemed like an easier option for them not to struggle to take the child everyday to schools and fight forrights and advocate for better resources. This will be a major challenge in front of AADI as it will havework with parents again, to make them understand the long term negative impact of ‘home based
education’.
Working with Children
The focus of school based intervention remained towards creating enrollment and retention of children
with disabilities in schools. Regular support visits, meetings with parents & school staff, training ofteachers through demonstration exercises & workshops, problem solving with teachers and parents,
school sensitization, linkages and networking with the education department & other departments
were some of the interventions undertaken in order to ensure access to education and retention ofchildren with disability in the schools. Despite the problems related to physical accessibility and lack oftrained teachers in schools, children started attending school on a regular basis. They were supported
weekly in classrooms and individually at home.
The children were prepared through regular interventions. Day to day problems in teaching, getting
admission, retaining of children in schools- were handled at a one to one level with a large number ofchildren with disabilities being supported through this work. Children were assessed and supported by
the technical staff in the area of academics, mobility, toileting, self care, seating, postural management,
inclusion in play, etc.
Regular inputs were given to children with disabilities through school visits, inclusive games, remedial
teaching through regular follow ups and regular sessions at sub-centres and it created a conducive
environment for learning in schools. With more and more children with disabilities reaching the level ofsecondary education and giving their board exams, it was felt that all schools became familiar with thefacilities given by Government to children with disability. Elementary education also helped children todevelop the personality in such a manner that they become ready to raise the voice for their rights
when they reached secondary level education. Children were encouraged to avail government
provisions under the IED scheme like books and free of cost uniform. Many children with disability
started getting scholarships.
The community members, school teachers, families, peers played the role as facilitators to identify &remove the barriers to enhance the abilities and development of children with disability with others,
which helped to enhance the full time attendance in schools, interaction with peers, participation in all
activities like morning assembly, games etc. for children with disability. Teachers recognized thepotential of children with disability after giving them opportunities to be with other children and thisinfluenced the environment of schools positively.
The rural programme sensitized the teachers about the process of inclusion and supported them toconduct the inclusive sports and cultural programs. As a result children participated in a school function
with non disabled children. Also, children from different schools were encouraged to participate in
rallies on world disability day. They themselves prepared slogans and banners on issue of disability withthe help of the school authority.
37

Local volunteers were prepared to provide regular inputs to children with disability after school time.
Children were also provided support for their emotional needs through regular counseling sessions andfeedback. Children with disabilities were helped to access various aids and appliances such as wheel
chairs, crutches, tricycle, A.F.O, H.K.A.F.O, calliper, adapted shoe. After getting mobility aid and trainingsome children became community walkers and started going to school. Aided audiometric tests formany children with hearing problem were done. These assessments helped in identifying the need forhigh power and behind the ear aids. Many children were helped in procuring hearing aids through thelocal resources. Preparation for various children for pre- school education was done at the child, family
and at school level. The parents took time to accept and understand education as a need and right ofthe child with disability as well and his/her need to be part of the mainstream school.
Children with disabilities were supported and encouraged to participate in the Block, District and Statelevel games organized by Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. Some children with disabilities who were unable towrite on their own were trained by a person with disabilities to use a computer for typing, whichenabled the children to give their exams using computers.
The availability of Government Schemes supporting education of children with disabilities also played amajor role in keeping their parents’ motivation high.
Community sensitization, meeting with Panchayats, regular meeting with parents in the group to keepthem motivated, arrangement of appropriate aids and adaptations, disseminating information about
various relevant schemes and facilitating the process to avail of the benefits of these Government
schemes- were some of the interventions taken up in order to ensure proper access to education andretention of children with disability in the schools. Children, who had not been integrated in theschools, were provided interim services at the sub centers.
Working with Teachers
Training of teachers in regular schools on the issue of disability and how to handle the specific needs ofchildren in classrooms was undertaken. Specific needs for training in mainstream schools wereidentified and the training was imparted to the teachers. Some schools agreed to have all the staff
members trained for the pre-education programme. Regular visits were undertaken to bring about
attitudinal change, for the acceptance of children with disability at all levels (students, helpers,
teachers, principals and all the supporting staff) in the schools where the children were enrolled.
Regular sharing, demonstration of skills, support and follow-ups in schools were tools to build thecapacity of teachers to promote the inclusive environment for children with disability in schools.
Teachers promoted the peer support in the class so that these children could look after the seating andother needs of his/her peer child with disability as friends.
Regular support to teachers helped to build the capacity of various teachers in a large number ofschools to identify the needs, barriers and to work for removing those barriers. They also helped
parents in getting schemes; taking children with disability in sports camps, outings, conduct inclusive
games, festivals, refer for medical needs. SSA under RTE also added the support & techniques to create
school environment more inclusive and diverse. Teachers started coming forward to discuss the
problems & difficulties to solve by discussing them.
It was felt that now the teachers in the schools were a lot more sensitive to the needs of children withdisabilities. They showed special concern for the needs of children with disabilities who needed extra
time and writers during the exams. They themselves began writing letters to the education department
for the availability of extra time and the provision of having a writer for them.
38

Working with Schools
Increasing physical access in the schools and other areas- Attempts were made to increase theaccessibility in their schools so that the education of children with disabilities could continue. Someschools made shift ramps (temporary ramps) for functional activities while others shifted their class to
the ground floor after they were sensitized about the accessibility needs of children with disability andtheir right to education. Furthermore, the school children in a Government school were facilitated tomake the school library functional, which was previously not operational. In order to ensure theaccessibility in schools/education Institutes for children/persons with disability, the regular sensitizationand information dissemination were done for teachers, principals, administration, management andeducation authority time to time to construct the ramps, drinking water facilities and accessible toilets
in schools. A number of letters written by children with disability/parents also helped education
department and teachers to understand the need to construct the ramps, accessible drinking water
facilities and toilets in schools. As a result when the money was sanctioned the authorities themselvescame forward to find out the exact measurements for ramps.
Awareness raising in schools- Awareness was created about The Persons with Disabilities (Equal
Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act 1995 among the educational authorities
and the school. Awareness raising and sensitization was done in various schools. The staff from therural programme participated in other schools’ annual functions with the purpose of creatingawareness about disability. Various schools in different villages were made aware about the needs andthe rights of children with disability resulting in these schools being open to giving admission to children
with disability. Also, preparation of school authorities was undertaken to allow participation of children
with disability in others schools’ annual functions with the purpose of creating awareness about
disability.

39

School Management Committee (SMC) - Some parents of children with disabilities were encouraged
to become members of the school management committee. The SMC members met under the Right
to Education Act for school development work regularly, on demand of these parents. They
facilitated the accessibility in school infrastructure. Other parents contacted these members to
discuss the issues related to their children. Community recognized the potential of children withdisabilities & families and gave the opportunity to the children with disability /families to become apart of the new group. New school management committees were formed.
Sensitizing the community/ Other Resource persons- Various college students , college lecturers,
administration staff, Principals, young women from the neighborhood, siblings of children withdisability studying in higher classes were sensitized about disability issues and challenges faced by
Persons with disability due to barriers. This, in turn, led to children being supported in education by
these community resource people. Various Assistant Block Resource Coordinators were sensitizedabout needs of children with impairment so that evaluation process could be changed in schools.
This led to schools evaluating the children with impairment themselves.

Working with the Family/Community
Regular discussions and meetings were organized with the parents of children with disabilities inorder to motivate them to send their children regularly to schools and to understand the importanceof education in each child’s life.
Families of children with disability in rural areas were encouraged to maintain regular contact withschools to know the progress of their children. Participation of families increased in understanding
and resolving any education based issue faced by their child. The parents were further encouraged40

to raise their voice within the school system advocating for regular parent-teacher meetings and forthe provision of having the inputs and support from resource teachers for the children withdisabilities, in order, to ensure inclusion and meaningful classroom participation for their children.
They also raised the issue of quality education with the education authorities and followed this up by
writing letters to them. They worked with the school teachers to promote the practice of inclusive
games so that the children with disabilities could also participate.
Regular focus with parents on rights based approach for persons with disability made people
recognize the rights and opinions of persons with disability in different contexts and situations.
Emphasis was on providing maximum opportunities for decision making to people with disability inday-to-day life. Parents began showing openness and respect for children in response to working
with the parents in this manner on a regular basis. In addition, parents became interested incontinuing education of their child. Workshops were conducted and information was given to
parents about educational opportunities through NIOS, regarding deaf education and importance ofappropriate hearing aids.
Other systemic level advocacy work undertaken
Regular meetings and correspondence with block and district education officers were done to makethem aware about the grassroots problem at school level, for example transport, accessibility oftransport, toilets and drinking water facilities, admission of children with 'severe' disabilities, qualityof education in schools, the need for computers in schools as an alternative to writing for children
using different means to write etc.
Some highlights of the block level interventions work:
•
•
•
•
•
•

At the block level, inclusive games were organized with all the wheelchairs being provided
by AADI for the games.
Also, meetings were held with the Block Education Officer for the sanctioning of awriter/extra time/facilitator for children with disabilities in the primary classes.
Visits to the BEO (Block Education Officer) to know about the role of the Block Resource
Centre were organized and this forum was also used to address 35 Principals of various
schools- who were also present on the occasion-on the need for inclusion in the schools.
The BEO was also given material for awareness raising in schools on the World Disability
Day.
District education department was sensitized for making the schools fully accessible under
SSA. Copy of the structural design on accessibility was also given to the concerned person.
Also, the AADI rural staff corresponded with the Ballabgarh Government hospital seeking
some space in the hospital for the measurement of hearing aid moulds for 57 children. With
this initiative, the space was provided for and work was undertaken there.

Some highlights of the district and state level work:•

A written letter was given to the District Education Authority to sensitize the education staff
about the varied needs of children with disabilities (need for transport and adapted aids)
who were going to school. For the same, a follow up was done not only through further
correspondence but also a visit was organized to both the District office and the State officein Chandigarh. The State office sanctioned the transport at the district level and 14 adapted
aids were also sanctioned to AADI. A camp was held at the panchayat bhavan of the Blockoffice which was attended by the SDM, BEO and the other education staff.

41

•

•
•
•

Also, the Haryana education board was visited with the parents of children with disabilities
in order to get permission to access the facilities for a writer and extra time during exams.
Parents of children with disabilities submitted a letter at the district level requesting them toorganize state level games. They also wrote to them advocating the need for better facilities
needed for children with disabilities in mainstream education.
SSA authorities contacted AADI to conduct inclusive games at the District level, which werein turn organized by AADI and AADI sent the requisite equipment (wheelchairs etc.) needed
to organize the games.
The district camp organized by SSA for the distribution of disability certificates and aids andappliances was facilitated by the AADI rural staff.
Also, the AADI rural team visited the State Board office, Bhiwani supporting parents ofchildren with disabilities to successfully get permission for extra time in the 10th class board
examination.

42