Certificate Course on Inclusive Education for teachers, RVEC SIA NIAS 2017

RV Educational Consortium, Seva-in-Action and National Institute of Advanced Studies

Why Inclusive Education?
Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 (RTE Act) and the Right of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 (RPD Act) mandates inclusive education. These laws call for education for all without discrimination and that every student be provided equal learning opportunities.

It is in this context that inclusive education assumes significance. Teachers need to address new issues and challenges and reorient their teaching-learning processes to make classrooms inclusive of the needs and interests of the diverse learners.

What is the Course about?
The philosophical position of this course is to value every individual student and ensure equitable learning opportunities are provided for all. Earlier the focus of inclusive education was primarily on disability. However the current global discourse on inclusion is broader and aims to address diverse learning needs of all students, including those from underprivileged and traditionally marginalised backgrounds. The course considers this broader concept of inclusion and includes a range of students’ abilities from disabilities at one end of the spectrum to the gifted and talented at the other.

Teachers play one of the key roles in inclusion as they are the change agents in the classrooms. To enable creation of inclusive learning environment, teachers should be equipped with professional dispositions and skills, besides conceptual knowledge to address exclusion of all forms. Teachers should also be given opportunities in a non-threatening atmosphere to critically reflect on their own beliefs and biases.

The Certificate Course will be based on the rich experiences of RVEC and Seva-in-Action and the diverse range of field-tested materials and resources developed in partnership with UNICEF. NIAS has been working in the rather neglected area in our country of identifying gifted and talented children and providing mentoring support to them. The course content and materials draws from the unique synergy among psychologists, subject pedagogues, special educators, artists and educational researchers with considerable experience in both the pre-service and in-service teacher education. The content also takes into consideration the practices and research on inclusive education and most importantly understanding the needs of students and teachers in responding to diversity.

Objectives
To enable participants to:
 * 1) Recognise diversity in the	classroom as a resource
 * 2) Design inclusive, learner	friendly classrooms
 * 3) Prepare diverse resources for	the teaching-learning and assessment of all subjects
 * 4) Appreciate the need for	inclusion from a social justice perspective.

Duration
The course is for 6 months with 12 days of face-to-face sessions. The face-to-face sessions will engage participants in the course content. Participants are expected to implement the principles of inclusive education in their work and submit a narrative of their experience of implementation at the end of the 6 month period. Support will be provided to participants during implementation in the form of ideas, suggestions and where possible resources, throughout the course.

The face-to-face sessions will be offered on second and third Saturdays of every month for 6 months.

Certification
Participants will be issued certificate if they attend all 12 days of face-to-face sessions and submit the narrative based on their experience of implementing the principles of inclusion education, along with photographs/video documentation and samples of their work.