Inclusion Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Inclusion Policy - Essay Example The vision of the policy I to ensure that all the children and young people have a sense of being part of the local community they belong to. It also aims at having all the children educated and can easily access education within their local community unless otherwise. With a target of children ranging form 0-19 (25) years, the participation of their parent and children are crucial in achieving successful implementation of the policy ( Halvorsen & Neary ,2001) .The absence of an inclusion policy may deprive some students of there rights to fully benefit from the education system due to a number of factors (Hampshire County Council 2009). There are children who are disadvantaged in various capacities, have physical disability, encounter learning difficulties and require special attention to achieve their full potential in education and life. The inclusion policy lays a big role in ensuring that the problems faced by this group of children are adequately addresses. Inclusive education, according to its most basic definition, means that students with disabilities are supported in chronologically age-appropriate general education classes in their home schools and receive the specialized instructions delineated by their individualized education programs (IEP's) within the context of the core curriculum and general class activities ( Halvorsen & Neary,2001). According to the policy teachers and parents should be in a position to identify such children and plan for individualized education program that addresses the needs of the child. The purpose of having inclusive education policies is to ensure that the needs of all children are included in the curriculums guiding education. Inclusion policies came to be as a result of inequalities in education sector. These inequalities were in form of gender, racial and disability. For example some white dominated schools did not allow admission of children from minority groups such as the blacks, and if such children were admit ted their life at school would be made unbearable preventing them from achieving their full potential in education. More over, physically or emotionally disabled children were not provided with the adequate attention they required from them to catch up with other children in the class leaving them to lag behind and perform poorly in class (Woodward, 2000). There were great disparities in enrollment, retention and performances between the genders. The reason for the disparity was that during enrollment the most parents did not see the reason for educating the girl child. In addition the girl child was discouraged form undertaking science related subjects and the boys were equally discouraged from taking art based subjects leading to an in imbalance between the girls and boys in the specific subject areas .On the other hand most children with disabilities were being discriminated and they had no right to education like any other child. Inclusion policies were made so that all children would get a chance to access education despite their race, gender or disability (Fazal & Lingard, 2010). Critique of the inclusion policy The policy does not clearly mention the efforts to be taken by Walsall Primary school to cater for children who are discriminated upon because of their disability, gender and racial orientations. The policy talks about an environment where children are valued, respected and their confidence built from a strong partnership with their parents (Woodward, 2000) . Even though this policy sounds good, there is a notable gap in terms of provisions for