Inclusion or Segregation of Students with Special Needs

Inclusion or Segregation of Students with Special Needs
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Inclusion or Segregation of Students with Special Needs
Introduction
The state of special education has evolved over the years and currently reflects a state of inclusivity. In the previous years, students with special needs were subject to segregation from those attending general education classrooms. The special needs students were never beneficiaries of privileges that inclusive classrooms offered. Fortunately, the current education system has incorporated integration as the norm in schools ensuring that educators work together to ensure the needs of every student are catered for. Historically, the students with special needs were often prevented from accessing public schools, therefore, placed in secluded classrooms without appropriate support mechanisms. However, the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) ensured the current existing impacting changes. This Act ensured the availability of public education to children with disabilities alongside related services (Griffin and Shevlin, 2011).
Inclusivity in the classroom is the scenario where students co-exist within an ordinary school irrespective of their status and follow the same curriculum in the same classroom with full realization of all students, therefore, making each feel no different from the other. Inclusivity increases the level of participation of students from different cultural backgrounds into the culture as well as curricula of mainstream schools and communities (Morley et al., 2005). The concept of inclusion requires that the strengths and weaknesses of students should be overlooked while incorporating them into classrooms. Importantly, students with special needs also deserve rightful access to all resources within the general education classroom. Consequently, this points to the idea that in every school, the major goal should be creation of classrooms that have least restrictive environments to students (Hyunjeong et al., 2014). The term special needs, in this case, refers to mental or physical disabilities or rather situations that potentially create exceptional scenarios that call for focused and individualized educational programs as well as primary care requirements.
The concept of Inclusive Education
Historically, children with special education needs were always separated from their peers in separate schools. This continued to reduce contact and widen the gap between those with special needs and other children. However, scholars and experts in the field of education have increasingly questioned such a perspective on this level of approach. The widespread belief in the earlier days was that children with special needs required a separate education system. This perspective was attributable to a lack of knowledge and a lack of access to relevant technology. In the last three decades, there have been criticisms that led to transformation of such a perspective, therefore, introduction of inclusive education (Griffin and Shevlin, 2011).
The various changes within the special education policy alongside its provisions have resulted in alteration of the manner on how education should be provided to those with special needs (Griffin and Shevlin, 2011). The inclusive policy that entails the enrollment of pupils with special needs into mainstream schools was an influence resulting from developments within the international platform, alongside the changes within national legislation. Some of the significant international developments include the ratification by the UNESCO. The major provisions within the national legislative acts include the Educational Act, the Education Welfare Act, the Equality Act, the Disability Act as well as the Education for Persons with Special Education Needs Act (Shyman, 2015). The policy of inclusive education has produced results such as ensuring more enrollments of children with special needs in mainstream schools. The results are due to various key obligations that have been imposed on principals alongside teachers within the area of special needs (An and Meaney, 2015).
The obligations ensure that the principal bears the overall responsibility of ensuring that the needs of the special students are attended and given much attention. The philosophy of Inclusion is built on the premise that everyone within the society has equal rights and should receive fair treatment without any form of discrimination. The benefits of Inclusive Education reflects certain fundamental principles such as student’s inherent right to basic education based on equality of opportunity. Inclusion ensures that every child has access to quality education, human development as well as career opportunities. Such a concept is a prerequisite to improvement in democracy and economic development, health improvement as well as ensuring the existence of peace. Since the inception of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, there has been fundamental recognition of human right to education. This has ensured support towards full development of human personality as well as strengthening of the various respect to human life (Marshall and Goodall, 2015).
Principle of Exclusion/Segregation
Exclusion or segregation refers to the full-time placement or giving full attention to the special education classroom. This model confines the students with special needs, therefore, allowing them no time with their peers or typically developing peers. In this study, an excluded child is any student whose disabilities preclude his/her attendance at any school. They can be found in different settings and environments that include hospitals, homes or serving detention within the criminal justice system. This makes segregation to best encompass seclusion as well as exclusion and...