The document discusses India's national policies on education for children with disabilities from 1986 to 1992. The key points are: The National Policy on Education (NPE) in 1986 aimed to provide equal opportunities in education for all students, including those with physical disabilities. It emphasized integrating disabled students into general education settings when possible. The Programme of Action in 1992 further aimed to achieve universal primary education for disabled children and established targets and implementation strategies toward that goal, such as increasing enrollment of disabled students in general schools. It also addressed issues like special schools, teacher training, and vocational education to better support the education of children with disabilities in India.

1. NATIONAL POLICY ON EDUCATION FOR
CHILDREN WITH DISABILITY 1986 &
1992
- Simran Bahl
B.Ed Second Year

2. CONTENT
I. Post Independence Era
II. National Policy on Education 1986
i. Features of NPE
ii. Equal Opportunities to all for education: the education of students with physical disabilities
III. Programme of Action 1992
i. Features of POA
ii. NPE Review Perspective
iii. Targets
iv. Implementation Strategies
v. Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC)
vi. Special Schools
vii. Vocational Training
viii. Orientation & Training of Teachers
ix. Training of Educational Administrators
x. Special Teachers
xi. Educational & Vocational Guidance Counselling Personnel
xii. Content and Process
xiii. Use of Mass Media
xiv. Availability of Special Learning Materials and Aids
xv. Monitoring and Evaluation
IV. Reality Check

3. POST INDEPENDENCE ERA
• Special provision was laid down in Article 45 of the constitution, stating, free and compulsory
universal primary education for all children up to 14 years of age.
• budgetary provision for PwD was allocated in the various Five-Year Plan and as a landmark in this
direction.
• Education of children with disability in integrated settings was emphasized in the Kothari
Commission (1964-66).
• Integrated education of the Disabled Children (IEDC) scheme was launched in 1974 which got
merged in 1997 with the District Primary Education Project of 1985 that emphasized that
universalization of elementary education was possible only if disabled children were covered
under the umbrella of educational initiatives.
• Special schools for disabled children and integrated settings for them were working side by side.
By 1980s the number of schools for children who were deaf, blind and mentally retarded crossed
150.
• Integration of Children with Disabilities (CwD) in regular schools gathered momentum after the
National Policy on Education (NPE) 1986 followed with the Programme of Action 1992.

5. NATIONAL POLICY ON EDUCATION 1986
Features of NPE 1986
 Role of education- All round development of the individuals, cultural assimilation,
providing strength to democracy, secularism, construction of nation at every level,
creating self-sufficiency and searching new areas of development.
 National system on education, i.e. 10+2+3 system.
 Equality- Equal opportunities to all for education. *
 Women Education- Women are the key to nation’s progress.
 Education of scheduled caste and scheduled tribes.
 Education for backward classes, minorities.
 Adult education to remove illiteracy from the masses.
 Re-organization of education i.e. pre-primary, secondary and higher.
 New dimensions such as distance education, IGNOU, de-linking the degree with
employment etc.
The new policy gave a new direction in the field of education in the light of national unity
and development of this is the preparation to welcome the 21st century.

6. Equal Opportunities to all for education: The education of the students
with physical disabilities.
The policy states that the objective should be to integrate the physically and mentally
disabled with the general community, to prepare them for normal growth and to enable
them to face life with courage and confidence.
It envisages the following measures in this regard:
 Whenever possible, education of children with locomotor disability and other disabilities
will be common with that of others.
 Provision for special schools with hostels as far as possible at district headquarters, for
severely disabled children.
 Adequate arrangements for vocational training to the disabled to enable them to live
with confidence.
 Re-orientation of teacher training programs to deal with the special difficulties of the
disabled children.
 Voluntary efforts for the education of the disabled by the voluntary organizations.

7. PROGRAMME OF ACTION 1992
The revised policy formulations which set forth the modifications to the National Policy on
Education, 1986 were placed in both Houses of Parliament on May 7, 1992.
These modifications were evolved through the same consensual process through which the NPE’86
was evolved.
In 1991, CABE (Central Advisory Board of Education) set up a committee to review the
implementation of the various parameters of the NPE’86, taking into consideration the report of the
Committee for Review of the NPE and other relevant developments since the Policy was formulated.
Features of the POA 1992
1. Education for Women’s equality.
2. Education of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Sections.
3. Minorities’ Education
4. Education of the Disabled {Handicapped (as mentioned in the POA)}*
5. Adult and Continuing Education
6. Early Childhood Care and Education
Conti…

8. Conti….
7. Elementary Education
8. Secondary Education
9. Navodaya Vidyalayas
10. Higher Education
11. Vocational Education
12. Delinking Degrees from Jobs and Manpower Planning
13. Rural Universities and Institutes
14. Technical and Management Education
15. Research and Development
16. The Cultural Perspective
17. Development of Languages
18. Media and Educational Technology
19. Sports, Physical Education and Youth
20. Evaluation Process and Examination Reforms
21. Teachers and their Training
22. Management of Education

9. NPE Review Perspective
• The NPE of 1986 recommended an integrated education in general schools for children with locomotor
handicaps and with other mild disabilities, orientation and pre-serviced training of general teachers to
meet special needs of these children, provision of vocational training, establishment of special schools
for severely disabled children and encouragement of voluntary organizations in these tasks.
• The POA suggested a pragmatic placement principle. It postulated that a child with disability who can
be educated in a general school should be educated in a general school only and not in a special
school. Even those children who are initially admitted to special schools for training in plus curriculum
skills should be transferred to general schools once they acquire daily living skills, communication skills
and basic academic skills.
Targets
For achieving equalization of educational opportunities, children with disability should have access to
quality education comparable to other children. However, considering the financial resources likely to be
available during the 8th plan the targets for education of disabled children would be as follows:
a) Children who can be educated in general primary schools.
• Universal enrolment by the end of the 9th Five year plan.
• Ensuring achievement of minimum level of learning through adjustment and adaptation of curriculum
and teaching to special needs.
Conti…

10. Conti…
b) Children who require to be educated in special schools or special classes in general schools.
• Universal enrolment by the end of the 9th Five Year Plan.
• Ensuring achievement of level of learning commensurate with their potential.
c) Reduction of drop out rates on par with other children.
d) Providing access to disabled children to secondary and senior secondary school with resource
support and making special provision for vocational training of these children, particularly
those with intellectual disabilities.
e) Reorienting pre-service and in-service teacher education programs to meet special needs in the
classroom.
f) Reorienting adult and non-formal education programs to meet educational and vocational
training needs of persons with disability.
Implementation Strategies
1. Planning for Universal Elementary Education and Adult Literacy at all levels- Centre, State,
District, Block and Project- provide for the educational needs of this category of children.
2. Training of educational planners and administrators as well as pre-service and in-service
teachers.
3. The material supplied under Operation Blackboard will have to take into consideration special
needs of these children.

11. Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC)
 The POA’86 Target of increasing enrolment of children by 25% per year was achieved as enrolment of
disabled children in general schools increased from 15,000 to 30,000.
 Subject to availability of resources, the cumulative enrolment would reach 50,000 by the end of 8th
Plan.
 However, an additional 1,00,000 children with mild disabilities will be provided resource support from
teachers and learning aids and equipment.
 The following action were needed for achieving the targets laid down:
o Adequate allocation of resources.
o Provision for education of disabled children should be made an integral component in externally
assisted basic education projects.
o Centrally Sponsored Schemes of Operation Blackboard, Vocationalisation of Education and Non-Formal
Education.
o Co-ordinated implementation of schemes like Community Based Rehabilitation, ECCE, VRCs and IEDC
so as to reduce cost and achieve higher coverage. This would require coordination among the
Ministries/Departments of Health, Welfare, Education, Women & Child Development and Labour.
o The NGOs have to encouraged to implement IEDC, particularly in rural areas. The NGOs involved in
other educational activities will be encouraged to work in this area also and assisted in developing
their expertise.

12. Special Schools
 The POA envisaged provision of an additional 400 special schools at the district headquarters.
 However, because of resource constraints no new special school has established.
 The Ministry of Welfare has identified 240 districts without any special schooling facility.
 Efforts would be made to provide special schools in these districts by the end of 9th Five Year Plan.
Vocational Training
 The Ministry of Labour is providing vocational training to the handicapped through the Craftsman Training
Scheme (CTS), the Apprenticeship Training Scheme and separate Vocational Rehabilitation Centres (VRCs).
 Three per cent of the seats for admission to IT is under the Craftsman Training Scheme and
Apprenticeship Training Scheme are reserved for candidates who are handicapped but have aptitude
and are otherwise' fit to undergo the required training.
 The States/UTs. have been advised from time to time to implement this reservation for the
handicapped which will be continued during the 8th Plan also.
 Adjustment and adaptation of equipment to provide full access to disabled persons will be ensured.
 The National Institutes for the Handicapped under the Ministry of Welfare will continue their efforts to
provide vocational training to the handicapped.
 The Department of Education will also encourage voluntary organizations working in the area of
vocational education and training for the handicapped.
 The CIVE will provide support to vocational training for the handicapped through teacher training
material and other resources.

13. Orientation and Training of Teachers
 All the DIETs to be established by the end of the 8th Plan will have a resource room and trained
faculty to teach the essential component of education of children with disability.
 They will also run orientation programs for teachers at least from lab areas and practicing schools
to establish field demonstration of IEDC program.
 The SCERTs will support field demonstrations under the scheme of IEDC. Similar action is
suggested for the 250 CTEs and 50 lASEs.
 The pre-service training curriculum will induct essential components in these. areas, wherever it
has not been done so far.
 All in-service teachers should receive awareness input on education of children with disability in
orientation programmes.
 In each area/institution where IEDC is implemented all teachers will receive orientation as
envisaged in the scheme of IEDC. The heads of institutions and educational administrators will
also receive training.
 The Indira Gandhi National Open University and NCERT should plan credit courses on special
education to equip general teachers to meet special needs.
 The NCERT will provide training to the IEDC cell staff. Multi-category training of resource teachers
will be encouraged in UGC supported programs.

14. Training of Educational Administrators
The NIEPA in collaboration with NCERT should develop programs for training educational
administrators and making them aware of the needs of this group. The IGNOU should design and
offer courses for this target group also.
Special Teachers
The NIHs and its regional training centers have built up capacity to train single disability special
teachers for special schools.
Besides meeting demands of the new special schools, the existing untrained teachers will be
trained and backlog cleared by the end of the 8th Plan.
In-service training of special teachers will be planned in a way that each teacher receives a three-
week course every four years.
Efforts will be made to promote special education units in university departments of education
for training teachers to handle multi-category disabilities.
Education and Vocational Guidance Counselling Personnel
The existing education and vocational guidance·, counsellors should be provided training in
dealing with disabled children and their parents.
Essential component should also be added to their pre-service training programs. The NCERT
and NIHs should design and offer in-service course for in-service counsellors.

15. Content and Process
 Curriculum flexibility is of special significance for these children. Special needs of these children will be
met, if child-centered education is practiced.
 The curriculum adjustment and adaptation of teaching methods and material will be worked out, field
tried and provided to the users.
 The following actions will be taken:
• Guidelines for child centered education, including special needs in the classroom, being developed at
the NCERT will be made available by mid 1993.
• Guidelines for adjustment of curriculum and instructional material and methods for visually and
hearing handicapped at primary level have been developed. Work for upper primary and secondary
school level will be started and completed by the end of 1994.
• The achievement of minimum levels of learning by children with mild disabilities should be ensured
through resource support and alternative learning material, wherever needed.
• The Boards of Examination should make adjustment and adaptations in examination for the
handicapped children.
• Study of more than one language should not be compulsory for deaf children.
• Teaching of Science and Mathematics is either not available to handicapped children or they opt for an
easier substitute.
• The NIHs and the NCERT to be asked to make special efforts and develop an action program to improve
access of disabled children to these important areas.
• Child-to-child help in education of children with disability is an effective resource in view of large
classes and multi-grade teaching.
• The special learning aids and equipment like braille books, braille kit, audio visual material will be
developed and made available to schools by NIHs and NCERT.

16. Use of Mass Media
Radio and television are being used in a limited way both for advocacy as well as educational
purposes. The CIET, SIETs, NIHs and other organizations will develop a variety of programs so that
they can be regularly telecast/broadcast.
The MHRD will approach the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for providing adequate
time for this purpose.
The CIET, SIETs and NIHs will also develop software in non-telecast mode and make it available to
DIETs, other training centers and NGOs working with disabled persons.
Field publicity units should be utilized by States for advocacy programs. Newspapers and
magazines have started popular advocacy and educational writing in this area. The NCERT and the
NIHs will develop packages and hand over to journalists in workshops.
Availability of Special Learning Materials and Aids
Learning material in braille is still not available to all children. Same is the case with aids like
braille slate, Taylor frame, etc.
Similarly language training material for speech and hearing handicapped is not available in
regional languages.
Steps will be taken by the NIVH, AYJNIHH, NIMH and the NCERT to ensure the availability of such
material.

17. Monitoring and Evaluation
 The availability of a reliable data base is essential for proper monitoring and evaluation of
educational programs for persons with disability.
 The District Education Office, must, with the help of other agencies, collect data about the
number of disabled persons in the District- disability wise, sex wise and age group wise;
beneficiaries under IEDC, special schools, ITIs, VRCs, etc., number of special and resource
teachers, their qualifications and pay scale, and budget utilization.
 Similar information should also be included in the statistics collected by MHRD as also the
Educational surveys conducted by NCERT.
 The MHRD and the Ministry of Welfare should make grants under IEDC and special schools
contingent on the periodic returns giving the information.
 An inter-departmental Committee should be set up at the State and Central levels for monitoring.
In addition, regular visits by the officers of the MHRD, NCERT, Regional Colleges of Education and
field offices, should lead to status reports.
Evaluation studies by external agencies, universities conducting courses on education and
rehabilitation of persons in specific geographical areas will be commissioned by MHRD and the
Ministry of Welfare.

18. REALITY CHECK
The NPE/POA 1986 was modified and a new POA was chalked out in 1992 POA made
an ambitious commitment for universal enrolment by the end of the 9th plan for both education
in special schools or special classes in general schools.
Centrally sponsored scheme of integrated education for the disabled children(revised 1987,1989,
and 1992)
• The department of social welfare Govt. of India launched the centrally sponsored scheme of
integrated education for disabled children in 1974 with 100% central assistance with the
coverage of education of children with disabilities in the national policy on education during 1986
the scheme was shifted to the ministry of human resource development the scheme provides
educational opportunities for children with disabilities in common schools. A large number of
state governments have already adopted the scheme they have established administrative cells
for monitoring the scheme. However coverage of visually impaired children under the scheme at
present is negligible.
Project integrated education for the disabled(PIED)
• The national council for educational research and training implemented PIED during 1987 with
the financial support from UNICEF which provided support for the development of instructional
material, training of personnel, mobilizing community support, training of parents and
coordination of the project in remote and rural areas and difficult places. It also extended support
for identification and assessment of children with disabilities, establishment of resource rooms,
provision of aids and appliances and allowances for children with disabilities.