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== 2. Introduction – APD ==

== 2. Introduction – APD ==

Universal quality education is still a far cry in most schools in India. This has been corroborated b the The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) which suggest that quality of education is unsatisfactory in most schools. One cause for that is teachers mostly using only the textbook as their teaching resource, and adopting a one-size-fits-all pedagogy. '''Differentiated Instruction''' - combining multi-level and diverse resources along with diverse and learner-centric pedagogies are necessary in facilitating education of students at different levels of engagement and understanding. Exposing teachers to technology for accessing resources and approaches, and facilitating their contextualized use would is essential for differentiated instruction.

Universal quality education is still a far cry in most schools in India. This has been corroborated by the The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) which suggest that quality of education is unsatisfactory in most schools. One cause for that is teachers mostly using only the textbook as their teaching resource, and adopting a one-size-fits-all pedagogy. '''Differentiated Instruction''' - combining multi-level and diverse resources along with diverse and learner-centric pedagogies are necessary in facilitating education of students at different levels of engagement and understanding. Exposing teachers to technology for accessing resources and approaches, and facilitating their contextualized use would is essential for differentiated instruction.

When it comes to “Inclusive Education” (IE), there is a general lack of awareness and understanding among teachers, parents and education support system. Oftentimes, it is limited to including Children With Special Needs (CWSN) only. Children with learning disabilities and difficulties are being excluded in the classrooms, largely because Teachers are unable to understand and address their challenges. Inclusive education is not to be just seen as removing exclusions, it has to be seen as a larger understanding of the nature of learning itself and that children have diversity. Various kinds challenges exist and every child will be having some challenge or other and every child has some set of abilities. Inclusive education is really the perspective that we need to be able to focus on the strengths of all the children who are in the classroom where all of them can develop to the best of the abilities rather than restrict the development possibilities to a narrow set in which some children become capable and some become disabled.

When it comes to “Inclusive Education” (IE), there is a general lack of awareness and understanding among teachers, parents and education support system. Oftentimes, it is limited to including Children With Special Needs (CWSN) only. Children with learning disabilities and difficulties are being excluded in the classrooms, largely because teachers are unable to understand and address their challenges. Inclusive education is not to be just seen as removing exclusions, it has to be seen as a larger understanding of the nature of learning itself and that children have diversity. Various kinds of challenges exist and every child has a set of abilities. Inclusive education is really the perspective that we need to be able to focus on the strengths of all the children who are in the classroom where all of them can develop to the best of the abilities rather than restrict the development possibilities to a narrow set in which some children become capable and some become disabled.

While there is a lot available on ‘Inclusive Education’ (including policies, processes) on ‘paper’, there is a serious gap in actualizing what is on paper and a lot needs to be done on that front. The teachers and the academic support personnel have practical challenges which need to be addressed so that they are enabled and empowered to practice inclusive pedagogies in the classroom.

While there is a lot available on ‘Inclusive Education’ (including policies, processes) on ‘paper’, there is a serious gap in actualizing what is on paper and a lot needs to be done on that front. The teachers and the academic support personnel have practical challenges which need to be addressed so that they are enabled and empowered to practice inclusive pedagogies in the classroom.