HISTORY OF SPECIAL EDUCATION

The education of disabled children never received such amount of consideration and
special efforts by government and non-government agencies in past as in present
days. The attitude of the community in general and the attitude of parents in
particular towards the education of the disabled have undergone change with the
development of society and civilization.

Children with defects were not cared for in prehistoric societies. Defects like mental
illness in the good old days were considered the result of some kind of sin. Children
suffering from them were either killed or subject to abuse and neglect. The
physicians and scholars in ancient Greek and Roman societies made some efforts to
treat and preserve the lives of the handicapped and provided asylums for them. The
Renaissance brought a small change in the earlier attitudes. This was the state of
affairs until the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

INDIAN SCENARIO

PRE INDEPENDENCE ERA

VEDIC ERA ( firm belivers of theory of Karma)

The Great Rishi, Gurus were of the firm believers in the theory of Karma. Therefore,
they were of the opinion to give ample opportunities to the disabled, poor and suffer
to learn the art of self-actualization and doing good in the life for getting better result
in the next cycle of life. In doing so with them they also believed that in turn, they
might earn good karma for themselves.

In later periods of Indian history the treatment care and education of the disabled in
India also passed through various phases. In advocating humane treatment to the
disabled, Lord Budah and Mahavira propagators of the doctrines of Budda and Jain
religions played a major role. The disabled and poor people were treated as subject
of Sympathy, pity and Asylum. The ruler like Ashoka and Harsh Bardhan establish
hospitals and asylum for the disabled.
The tradition of state funding and also the charitable flow for the care and protection
of the disable continued through the medieval India during the regimes of many
Muslims rulers including Mughals. During their rule, although the ‘disabled and the
poor were responsibility of the state, one of the important edicts of Islam was Zakat,
that is giving of alms and donations by individuals to the poor and giving the
disabled.

The first attempts at educating handicapped children were made in the last two
decades of the nineteenth century with the establishment of the first school for the
hearing impaired in Bomboy in 1885, followed by the first school for the visually
impaired in 1887. The first school for blind and deaf was started at Mysore in 1901.
In 1906, the first Government school “The Emerson Institute for the Blind” was
started at Lahore in 1906. Although the facilities in the form of psycho-medical
treatment were available at Ranchi from 1934, yet the first home for the mentally
retarded came up at Bombay in 1941. In this way, there were quite a sporadic and
scattered efforts in the direction of education for the disabled children. In real sense,
however under the colonial rule, India had a very marginal and insignificant
provisions for the education of its children, including the disabled. When India got
independence in 1947, we had only 34 institutions for the deaf, 32 for the blind and
3 for the mentally retarded.

POST-INDEPENDENCE ERA

After gaining independence in 1947, India tried to focus on the education of its
children including the disabled. The main landmarks in the development of special
provisions for the disabled children after independence may be outlined as follows:-

• From 1950 onwards India has switched over to democracy. Its main tents
are equality, liberty, fraternity and justice. Equality implies equality of
opportunity. In a democracy system all men are born equal and enjoy equal
rights without any differentiation and discrimination of poor and rich and high
and low. It is the prime duty of the government to minimize inequalities,
disparities and imbalances as far as possible.
• The Kothari Commission (1964-66) observes that the coveted goal of
universalisation of elementary education depends upon the extent of success
 in bringing special groups of children within the education network.
Commission advising the Government on “ the national pattern of education
and on the general principles and policies for the development of education at
all stages and in all aspects” clearly emphasized that “ the constitutional
directive on compulsory education to all children, includes handicapped
children as well. However, very little has been done in the field so far.”
• In an attempt for implementation of the National Policy on Education, 1968,
the Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) scheme was
launched in December 1974 under the erstwhile department of social welfare
for admitting children with disabilities in regular schools.
• In 1985, a well-known programme in the name of District Primary
Education Programmme (DPEP) was launched. This programme worked
on the very assumption that universalisation of education is possible if it
includes children with disabilities.
• National Policy on Education 1986—
The objective should be to integrated the physically and mentally
handicapped with the general community as equal partners, to prepare them
for normal growth and to enable them to face life with courage and
confidence.
• The Programme of Action (POA), 1992 suggests pragmatic placement
principles. It postulates that a child with disability who can be educated in a
general school should be educated in general school only and not in a special
school. Even those children who are initially admitted to special for training
in plus-curriculum skills should be transferred to general schools once they
acquire daily living skills, communication skills and basic academic skills.
For achieving equalization of educational opportunities, POA also envisages
that children with disability should have access to quality education
comparable to other children.
• Government of India Launched the Project Integrated Education for the
Disabled (PIED) in 1987 for encouraging all schools in a neighbourhood to
enroll children with disabilities. In this approach, a cluster usually a block of
population is taken as the project area. All the schools in the area are expected
to enroll children with disabilities and training programme are also given to
the teachers.
• The Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 is a quite composite act covering all
aspects of education and economic rehabilitation of the disabled. The
legislation stipulate that the appropriate governments and the local authorities
shall ensure that every child with disability has access to free education in age
appropriate environment till he attains the age of 18 years.
• In 2000 Government of India launched ‘SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN’
an ambitious programme seeking education for all by 2010, fully pleading that
the SSA will ensure that every child with special need irrespective of the kind
category and degree disability is provided education in an appropriate
environment.
• 86th amendment of the Constitution passed in 2002 GOI introduced new
article 21A: Right to Education, This provides “the state shall provide free
and compulsory education to children of the age of 6 to 14 years (covering
children with disabilities) in such a manner as the state may by law,
determines”.
• Feb. 2006 “ the national policy for persons with disabilities” to provide
equal opportunities, protection of their rights and full participation in society.
• NEP-2020 recognizes the importance of creating enabling mechanisms for
providing children with special needs (CWSN) or Divyang, the same
opportunities of obtaining quality education as any other child.
- Children with disabilities will be enabled fully participate in the
regular schooling process from the Foundational stage to higher
education.
- Home based education will continue to be choice available for
children with disabilities who are unable to go to schools and they
shall be treated as equal to any other in the general system.