Inclusive Education, Boy's under-achievement Essay

Inclusive Education, Boy's under-achievement - Essay Example With reference to the term ‘inclusion’, it has long been regarded as the most important responsibility within education and society to ensure that children with special needs are included rather than excluded. Special educational needs (SEN) is the term currently extensively used in education and care setting to refer to the special needs of children who need an extra support in their life. It has been realised as one of the morally wrong and socially discriminating issue to isolate children due to their physical or learning needs compared to the majority of other children and the most approving endeavour by a practitioner in the area is to embrace the move towards inclusion and to promote this practice. â€Å"The term ‘special educational needs’ was used as an all-encompassing term to describe any child who needed some extra support. Children have special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty that calls for special educational provision to b e made for them.† (Tassoni and White, 4) Children with a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of children of the same age or those with a disability which hiders them from using the educational facilities are included in this special category. There have been several attempts to correct the term with which the special needs of these students are referred and the concept of inclusive education is the result of the long plea to change the education system in order to allow all children to enjoy fair and equal access to education. While focusing on the children with special needs, the campaign for inclusive education extends to a wider range of children who have been traditionally discriminated against. "The concept of inclusive education signals a significant mind shift. Instead of expecting children to 'come up to standard' or otherwise be segregated, the emphasis is on schools and settings to adapt and be flexible enough to accommodate each and every child." (Tassoni and White, 10) This paper deals with underpinning conceptual frameworks of inclusive education distinguishing between competing models of inclusion. As the term 'inclusive education' has become so widely used and abused, it has almost lost its great meaning. It has long been a topic of debate and the label and the language used to refer to the concept have become serious concern today. "Its application to everything from school effectiveness to civil rights to political manifestos renders it vacuous and susceptible to those critiques which accuse it of masking inadequacies. For the cynics, inclusive education means abandoning labelling and special resourcing for individual needs in order to cut costs in the name of equality." (Corbett, 10) Inclusion is not a new concept as the ideals behind inclusive education have deeper roots in liberal and progressive thought. Whereas the earlier school system focused on the segregation of students with special need, the current system is inclusive in nature. Following the works of the child welfare pioneer Elizabeth Burgwin, there was significant shift in focus where educationalists insisted on an inclusive strategy rather than segregation. Most probably, this inclusive thought of the early years prospered and provided the philosophical and organisational foundation for the school system of the contemporary period. "An inclusive philosophy has ultimately risen again and prospered. It has been able to succeed because it chimes with the philosophy of a liberal political system and a pluralistic culture - one that celebrates diversity and promotes