Abstract
Though our country has witnessed phenomenal expansion of the educational opportunities in the second millennium, our disabled children have not benefited substantially from this growth with the main stream students. The education of the disabled children in India is more than hundred years old, but our services are far from adequate. The past two decades has witnessed the mushrooming of integrated education programmes. But in India we could not admit even ten percent of educable children in the normal community. Different models in the integration are practiced in the country and some were successful but there was not a single model of perfection. We need indigenous models but not the foreign transplants. The model should be based as per the need of Indian Culture and Heritage.
Kerala achieved remarkable progress in implementing the scheme with visionary leadership along with the mass support of regular teachers and non-governmental organisation especially in secondary level. To make it more successful in primary level we have to take more effort to prepare plans and actions.
We accept Inclusive Education as an integral part of general education. Training regular classroom teacher in the area of integrated education, curriculum modification, parental education, appropriate technology and modification, awareness to parents and modification of positive attitude towards the disability are the key point of successful integrated education. We have formed a state level and district level Resource Group to develop the manpower in special education and it has become the back bone of the scheme recently. Preparation in the early stage is a factor and our special schools become the pilot Resource Centres in training the teachers, peers and social volunteers. The success stories will be in the paper to highlight our achievements to be the model for other states to achieve the aim 'Education For All' in the coming decades.
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