International Centre for Special Needs Education

Evidence suggests that around 100 million children in the world do not have access to primary education. It is also estimated that less than one per cent of the world's disabled children attend school in developing countries.

Special teaching and different kinds of facilities are required by children with physical or learning disabilities. If not given due attention their priorities often tend to get sidelined. The preset social attitudes towards disabilities hinder inclusion of such children in mainstream society. Throughout the world, children suffering from disabilities are often marginalized due to these preconceived notions about their capabilities which are held by most members of the community.

This general outlook goes beyond an actual assessment of their capacity, to attribute an imagined notion of what they cannot do. When they are perceived in this manner, they develop what has been termed as “inferiority complex”, which is when they start believing that what people around them think is true.
In recent times, there has been a major shift in the views concerning a person’s disability. There has been an increasing effort from NGOs and ministries towards inclusiveness rather than focussing on their rehabilitation.
Various committees, working groups and commissions have frequently and genuinely expressed their concern about mainstreaming these children. India along with other countries in the Asia Pacific region has taken a number of steps for the promotion and implementation of inclusive education.

Centre for Special Needs Education

UNESCO and Government of India have proposed to establish an International Centre for Special Needs Education in New Delhi. This centre is expected to cater to the Asia Pacific Region where there are a large number of children with physical and learning disabilities. This would help in facilitating quality education. This Centre is to be set up in the campus of National Council of Education Research and Training.

The reason behind the establishment of the centre was that it would serve as a knowledge bank for the research and practice of inclusive education. The centre was to outline the roles of the specialists working in this field and make them aware of their future responsibilities.

The Centre would work according to the needs of various countries like Australia, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and New Zealand. The needs are identified under the following heads:

• Training of Teachers
• Resource Development
• Networking/Exchange
• Research

It would also work in the direction of capacity building, networking, maintaining a database, documentation and information dissemination. The Centre is also expected to provide consultancy services to SAARC countries in different areas as per specific local needs along with the facilities of research and development.

Capacity building

This includes teacher training programmes for SAARC countries, induction of the component of inclusive education in their initial training, orientation programmes for policy makers and creation of awareness among common people. 

Development programmes

These include issuing a Journal of Education for Children with Special Needs by NCERT. This objective also lists material development for creation of awareness for general public, parents, educational administrators, teachers, teacher educators. It would also involve the collection of existing data through questionnaires and the internet. Existing networks would be connected and there would be region level workshops.

NCERT being a torch bearer for the concept of inclusive education will have a significant role to play in the functioning of this centre.