In Madhu Gupta (Eds.), Inclusive Education: Issues & Challenges, Mastermind Publications, Meerut (UP) 2014, pp. 277-284 (ISBN 978-93-82782-14-8). Home Based Education: A Key Driver of Inclusive Education THE BACK-DROP Vandana Punia* & Aruna Sharma** The educational scenario of global and national level is going through a sea change. The education delivery mechanism which had been very popular but concentrated has been emerging with new innovations for its widespread use. The move of inclusive education has become a hallmark in the educational agenda of every country in general and for India in particular. In fact the philosophy of inclusive education revolves around the assumption that almost every students should start in a general classroom in the initial stage. However depending upon the special needs of select children they could be moved into the environments which is comparatively restrictive and also suits to the special needs of child. Hence the concept home based education which was in restrictive use in earlier times has become more popular and handy in the philosophy of inclusive education which can be a key driver of inclusive growth. Economic growth of any country will remain a distant dream and far from reality of inclusive growth if its education is not made inclusive. The inclusive education again call for rightful education without bias of any kind could be regional, caste, creed, gender or special physical & mental requirements of the children. Therefore, the concept of home based education which in the ancient times was a privilege for children of distinct and affluent class like kings, queens etc (who normally wanted to keep their wards away from the general public) has emerged in a new from of serving to the differently abled children so that Children With Special Needs (CWSN) are not deprived of their right to education. Since the Government of India adopts the socialistic pattern of society to attain inclusive growth wherein each individual irrespective of their physical and mental abilities has a mandate to contribute in the system. Hence keeping this in view, the present paper has been attempted to explore the utility and mechanism of home based education for inclusive growth. * Dr. (Mrs.) Vandana Punia, Department of Education, Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, Haryana -125 055 (INDIA).
** Dr. (Mrs.) Aruna Sharma, B.J.R.D. College of Education, Pali, Mohindergarh, Haryana (INDIA). THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF HOME BASED EDUCATION Inclusion, as a way of joining together children with special needs into regular school education, gained importance in India during 1970s, with the launch of Scheme of Integrated Education of the Disabled Children-IEDC in 1974. The increased wakefulness and need to educate CWSN has also been reflected in the National Policy on Education- NPE (1986) and the succeeding Plan of Action- POA (1992), which advocated for providing integrated special education for the mildly handicapped and severely handicapped children. There are differing views on inclusion wherein some view it as policy driven by the conviction that all students have a right to be in a regular school, and hence, try to bring all children into mainstream in the inclusion mold. This philosophy can be just as coercive and inequitable as trying to force all Children With Special Needs (CWSN) into the mold of a special education class/special school or any other alternative placement setting. Similarly the other segment believes that all students have the right to be in an educational setting where their learning potential of the children is optimized to its fullest. The role of government in a democratic system with regards to home-based education is encouragement, information and support, not the domination as far as education of CWSN is concerned. The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, disabled without creating room for dicey situation Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, Government of India, 1995 (hereafter, PWD Act) also provide for the relevant provisions in this regards though not specific to home based education. Even the RTE Act (2009) as originally passed in 2009 and the RTE Amendment Act (2010) by the Parliament also did not have any provision for approved by the Parliament in the year 2012, home-based education for disabled children. Though the Government of India launched Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) for Universalization of Elementary Education aiming at providing useful and relevant elementary education in the age group of 6-14 years by 2010 yet this goal cannot be accomplished in isolation of Children with Special Needs (CWSN). SSA has adopted a more pragmatic approach in implementing the programme of inclusive education wherein its framework clearly states that SSA will ensure that every child with special needs, irrespective of the kind, category and degree of disability, is provided education in an appropriate environment. SSA will adopt zero rejection policy so that no child is left out of
the education system. It will also support a wide range of approaches, options and strategies for education of children with special needs. Inclusive education in SSA is a more expansive concept which stresses upon providing education to CWSN in an environment most appropriate to their learning needs may be from a regular school, bridge courses to prepare CWSN for schools or home-based education. Home Based Education is an important mechanism of service delivery in inclusive education as initiated by SSA. Generally home-based education is defined as the education of children with severe intellectual/physical disabilities, who can be educated in the combination of home-based and alternate educational settings to enable them to achieve independent living skills. Home based education aims at school preparedness and preparation for life. Alternate educational settings provide opportunities for learning of social skills, vocational skills and implementation of life skills. A severely intellectually disabled child will be a child who would not be able to perform two or more of the Toileting, Feeding, Communication, Motor Skills, Basic social skills, and Self grooming functions independently, which a non-disabled child of that age group could do. Research findings reveal that inclusion is best determined by the individual needs of the child wherein some CWSN can be included in regular schools by giving them high level of support resources whereas the others might have been granted pre-integration Programme in form of home based education. Still some CWSN with severe disabilities would require an Educational Programme with intensive specialized support which is normally beyond the preview and scope of any formal school in current situations. Home-based education is in its growing stage in India and cannot be even considered as an alternative to schooling. Yet it can prove to be a remedial measure to be used in exceptional situations. Though home based education is a relatively controversial topic for many educators and policy makers as many critiques are not in its favour it is violating the philosophy and vision of inclusive education yet keeping in view its significance it can bring desirable results in specific situations. The July 2006 report called Discovering New Paths to Inclusion-A Documentation of Home-based Practices for CWSN, states that no child having special needs should be deprived of the right to education and taught in an environment, which is best, suited to her/his learning needs. These include special schools, E.G.S., A.I.E. or even home-based education. Universalisation of Elementary Education, being flagship Programme of Indian
Government, SSA has adopted Zero Rejection Policy in its implementation which signifies that no child having special educational needs should be deprived of getting educational opportunities in an environment which is best suited to his learning needs. Various steps were initiated for the inclusion of children with special educational needs yet there is a group of CWSN who is not eligible for inclusion due to the high degree of their disability. Because of severe disability some children are not able to accommodate themselves in regular schools and some disabled children need highly specialized skills taught by specially trained teacher, and herein home based education is a legal option for inclusive education. As stated earlier home-based education is the education of children with severe intellectual/physical disabilities, who can be educated in the combination of home-based and alternate educational settings to enable them to achieve independent life skills. Home-based education aims at school preparedness and preparation for life in alternate educational settings for severely intellectual disabled opportunities for learning of social skills, vocational skills and implementation of life skills and thus comprises of following features: It is the combination of home based and alternative educational settings. Its main purpose is to enable CWSN with severs disabilities to achieve independent life skills. It is an efficient mechanism of service delivery mode in inclusive education and aims at school readiness and preparation of life. Its main objective is to provide alternative educational settings to help CWSN with sever disabilities in learning social skills, vocational skills and above all life skills. It is being imparted by the teachers of model inclusive schools and family is active participant in planning, intervention and evaluation. Emphasis is given to early identification and intervention of child and parents can be well informed about their child weaknesses and strengths whose full participation is required in providing skill based training to their child. RATIONALE, SIGNIFICANCE & ADVANTAGES OF HOME BASE EDUCATION Various surveys and studies have revealed that a large percentage of CWSN are deprived of their right to education due to the severe nature of their disabilities as they might not be accommodated in a regular classroom setting. Due to specific needs of some children at some point in their lives, they may need a special education programme which is
completely outside the purview of the regular classroom which necessitates the provision of home based education owing to the following reasons: Specialized skills requirements by specially trained teachers. Alternative academic curriculum due to non-response/inordinate time requirements to the standardized curriculum. Need the support of peer group but away from mainstream school boundaries. Excessive requirement of active parental partnerships/cooperation/participation. Although, no formal impact assessment studies could be available to assess the usefulness of home-based education, yet the related researches and reviews highlight that home based education can lead to various advantages like: The parents of CWSN become effective teachers along with the expert tutors and this parent-expert partnership builds mutual trust and thus sharing home-based early intervention. Since the child and the family have access to an inclusive and wellcoordinated range of services that address the child and families physical, emotional, social, and special needs which improves the quality of life not only for the CWSN but for the whole family. The progress of CWSN can be assessed through a carefully designed individualized programme with active and wholehearted participation of parents. In this phenomenon CWSN witness progress in their overall development, together with cognitive and language domains and once the child builds up the basic Activities of Daily Living- ADL, the alternate services could be extended to the regular schools CWSN improve degree of eye-contact, expressive language and comprehension of instructions and communication skills. The services which are provided keeping in mind the linguistic needs, socio-cultural norms and values of each child and family leads to a follow-up the progress on a regular basis, and consequently it helps in reduction of disruptive behaviour of CWSN. MYTHS AND CHALLENGES OF HOME BASE EDUCATION There are certain about home-based education that children education under home based education miss out the socialization, and also the exposure to approved forms of knowledge. Though the authors are advocating here the philosophy of home based education only to CWSN yet the evidences from other countries have gone in favour of home based
education even for normal children. In Indian context even in the historical times the wards of kings and queens were provided home based education that used to rule later on. The advocates who speak in favour of home based education view that these children do not report the feelings of resentment, the boredom or the certain bad habits which can be attributed to normal school culture. It is true that a home-based school is basically a one-class school operating in a room in a home, small space at tutor s place, or the shade of a tree does the supply of learning materials as available in a normal school yet some classroom(s) could be adorned with wall charts and visual materials as per requirements whereas others are quite bare and children sit on mats on the floor of empty rooms even than this phenomenon help in growth of the children and also performing a social cause. While talking in favour of home based education the evidence in UK, USA, Canada and elsewhere confirms that the children educated under home based education are, on average, two years ahead of their schooled counterparts and in the case of working class children closer to three years ahead and it is rare for home-educated young people to be unemployed. If we take the case of USA situation where of the 42 or so past presidents, 17 were home-based education graduates and the studies trying to rank them in order of their success, consistently put the first five as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt who all were home-based education graduates. Bertrand Russell, distinguished philosopher and mathematician, was another home based education graduate who observed about himself that I was glad I did not go to school. I would have had no time for original thought, which has been my chief stay and support in troubles. So the philosophy of home based education which has witnessed the success for normal children can prove to be boon for CWSN while not only educating them and attempting to bring them in mainstream but giving them a meaning of their life, yet the system has inbuilt challenges in the form of: Home-based school conditions and the professional isolation; The tentativeness, sustaining and improving home-based schooling; Policy implications and recommendations of integration into the government system; Teacher training support and teacher accreditation. CONCLUSION
Inclusive growth of any country which enhances its competitive strength is an encompassing term and very rightfully includes its economic and educational growth. However the growth will remain a distant dream and far from reality of inclusive if its education is not made inclusive. The inclusive education again call for rightful education without bias of any kind could be regional, caste, creed, gender or special physical & mental requirements of the children. The move of inclusive education has become a hallmark in the educational agenda of every country in general and for India in particular. In fact the philosophy of inclusive education revolves around the assumption that almost every student has a right of education irrespective of their physical and mental qualification. The concept home based education which was in restrictive use in earlier times has become more popular and handy in the philosophy of inclusive education which can be a key driver of inclusive growth due to its various merits as discussed in the paper. In fact home based education is an important mechanism of service delivery in inclusive education as initiated by government of India. References Batu, Sema (2008). Caregiver-Delivered Home-Based Instruction Using Simultaneous Prompting For Teaching Home Skills to Individuals with Developmental Disabilities, Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 43(4), 541 555 Cavkaytar, A. (2007). Turkish Parents as Teachers: Teaching Parents How to Teach Self- Care and Domestic Skills to their Children with Mental Retardation. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 42, 85 93. Collins, B. C. (2007). Moderate and Severe Disabilities: A Foundational Approach New Jersey: Pears D'Haem, Jeanne (2008). Special at School but Lonely at Home: An Alternative Friendship Group for Adolescents with Down syndrome. Down Syndrome Research and Practice, 12(2), pp. 107-111. Lustig (2009). Homebound Instruction: The Legal Segregation Of Students With Disabilities Under The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act: ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 2009
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