Special Education in India at the Crossroads

Thirumurthy, V., Jayaraman, B. (2007). Special education in India at the crossroads. Childhood Education, 83(6) 380-384.

• The Indian government faces the challenge of achieving Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which means Universal Elementary Education, by the target date of 2010 (Soni, 2004).
• Government schools also may charge tuition on a sliding scale.  Although parents enjoy freedom of school choice, their financial condition ultimately determines where they may enroll their children (p. 381).
• This simultaneous exposure to three languages could be demanding even for a typically developing child, and much more so for a child with a learning disability (p. 381).
• Many parents are not comfortable accepting their child’s learning disability and often lack the knowledge to use appropriate remedial education for learning difficulties (p. 381).
• Finally, the government makes no coordinated effort to identify children with special needs (p. 382).
• Even though the government policy takes a stand, individuals have to hold the government responsible for implementation (p. 383).

Schools in India are either government run or private, and children have the freedom to attend either.  However, because many of the better schools are costly, children really do not have as much freedom as it appears because most parents are financially limited.  Another issue in regards to special education in India is that students are expected to be proficient in several languages: (1) language spoken at home, (2) language spoken in their school environment, (3) and the required language they must learn in school.  This can be confusing for any individual, especially someone with a disability.  Identifying someone as having a disability is extremely difficult to do in India because the government does not put any efforts to do so, and parents are hesitant to reveal or accept their child’s disability due to a fear that the child will be rejected by potential schools.  Another barrier to getting needed services for individuals with disabilities is that the government only has loose policies, and individuals are responsible for identifying disabilities and seeking help (Thirumurthy & Jayaraman, 2007).