At least, that is the opinion of Lavina Khan, special needs researcher and Learning Teacher at the Achievement Centre for a private primary school in Dubai. “While the term ‘special needs’ has traditionally been taken to refer to students with learning barriers who may be slower on the uptake, this isn’t always the case. Learners on the exact opposite end of the spectrum – those who are termed ‘gifted’ and possess high IQ also have special needs that need to be looked at,” she says.

“Inclusion is about bringing support to children who need it, as opposed to the other way around. All learners are schooled in the same education environment, but those who need it are offered extra support. Rather than getting children to attend a special needs centre, support is offered where it is needed within a mainstream education structure,” explains Khan.

For instance, the Achievement Centre where Khan works is called in when a student is felt to require additional support. Evaluations for additional support are a collaborative process, but the initial trigger is usually the class teacher for the child in question. Thus begins a process that involves both the parents and the teachers to take a final decision. One of the functions of the Achievement Centre is to offer shadow teachers offering one-to-one interaction for learners that require it. The Centre chalks out a plan with objectives that the shadow teachers then follow to facilitate the learning process.

“Students who require shadow teachers are consistently followed by them through the day, particularly for numeracy, science and language lessons where extra learning support may be required,” says Khan.

As a part of the inclusion effort at her primary school, Khan’s also works with children who require structured learning support within a personalised attainment programme. The programme is designed to supplement areas in the curriculum that pose difficulties for any given learner. Khan’s ‘booster’ programmes are to identify learner difficulties within the school curriculum, and then tailor support to help achievement. Khan also takes sessions with gifted children who may need additional programmes in numeracy and literacy to keep them engaged. Booster sessions customised to learner needs are usually delivered in groups of five to eight students.

“The structured program is designed to keep trying, through different techniques, to explain and reinforce curriculum learning, for an hour at a time. If need be, learning support can also be extended to middle spectrum students if it is felt that it will help them perform better,” notes Khan.

Though Khan is a staunch supporter of inclusive education, she recognises the many challenges that such an approach faces. Apart from educator training and acceptance issues, inclusive education can also be at odds with a school’s philosophy of achievement. Khan believes an inclusive education approach can not thrive when schools face pressures to perform according to quantitative measurements.

“When schools are subject to pressure by stakeholders to conform to high grade attainment as their sole raison d’etre, moral issues of inclusiveness will be sidelined.While wanting students to score high marks and make excellent grades is commendable, it can bring about a myopic concern with developing a reputation for high academic achievement, which can in turn catalyse exclusionary admission.

“I strongly believe that it is the primary mission of schools to offer quality education for all, and this should include people of varying abilities. Accessible education is a moral imperative. Students with high abilities should indeed be encouraged to perform to potential, but one mustn’t lose sight of the fact that some students facing serious barriers to learning may never attend college.Nevertheless, this should in no way affect their inclusion in mainstream primary or secondary education,” she states.

Inclusion education prompts concerns from parents, educators and other stakeholders about the possibility of non-acceptance of differently abled students. It can be argued that hostile environments and bullying could result in inclusion becoming detrimental for special needs students. There are also question marks surrounding parental acceptance towards introducing their children to an inclusive model of education.

Khan notes that monitoring and evaluating systems should be put in place to minimise harmful by products of exclusion. She also notes that introducing inclusion at early ages in education has the potential to do away with such issues from the outset.

“If inclusive education is introduced for the very first time at secondary education, then there is always the risk of bullying and lack of acceptance, because young people will by then have developed stereotypes on what it means to be ‘normal’. But inclusiveness is brought in from primary education onwards, young learners implicitly learn to recognise – often without prompting – that humans have a spectrum of abilities, characteristics and understanding. This fact then becomes a core part of their worldview and understanding, and they become young adults from whom inclusion is not a noble concept but an unalienable fact of life.

“When inclusion becomes a non-negotiable fact, then parents, students and instructors become comfortable with that status quo. Inclusive education leads to friction only if a differently abled child is admitted to a school as an exception to the norm, or if inclusion is introduced at a later stage in the educational hierarchy,” she notes.

Khan believes that inclusive education is the way forward. “Across the United Arab Emirates, and particularly in the Emirate of Dubai, premium schools are leading the charge for inclusion by rapidly setting up support staff and specialists.”

But surely inclusion in elite schools is only exclusion of another kind based on disposable income? As long as inclusion is not an option for all, it is merely a byword disguising other socio-economic divides. Khan thinks such divides are being filled, albeit slowly.

“Slowly, we are looking at middle tier educational institutions moving towards inclusive education, as educators, parents and the society as a whole comes to grips with how different people possess varying degrees of ability,”says Khan.“Of course, such a process requires investment in educator training. To date, I believe that there has been a bit of a stigma associated with special needs education. Educators much rather prefer to pursue careers in mainstream education delivery. There are training and support issues to contend with.”

Khan believes that inclusive education generates more demand for human resources than physical assets. Any education programme catering to different needs would require skilled staff like speech therapists, shadow teachers, physiotherapists and the like. In addition, as inclusion calls for the placement of SEN students in regular classrooms, it is also essential to bring mainstream educators on board.

Khan has recently co-authored a research paper on primary classroom teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion of students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the private sector in Dubai. The research also explores the perceived preparedness of educators to handle the task of inclusion for SEN students in mainstream classrooms.

Describing her research, Khan says, “The research was largely qualitative, and gathered data through questionnaires and interviews. A two part questionnaire was used to obtain respondent’s attitudes towards inclusion of students with SEN, and also look at whether the participants perceived themselves capable of adapting instruction to students with exceptional needs.

“What was obvious was that though all educators were of the opinion that SEN students would pose a disruption, the attitude was reasonably positive towards giving inclusion a go. However, educators also had preferences in the kind of SEN students they wanted to cater to.While they had a positive attitude towards educating students with Learning Difficulties, Behavioural Disorders, Physical Disability and Health Impairments, educators weren’t too keen on the inclusion of students with Hearing Impairments, Communication Disorders, Intellectual Challenges and PMLD [Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities],” observes Khan.

Khan’s research indicates the majority of mainstream teachers also felt that students with SEN lacked skills needed to master the regular classroom course content, which would pose problems for educators. All educators surveyed also noted that mainstream teachers would be overburdened by work if students with SEN were to be included in mainstream classrooms.

However, without any training in special needs, teachers often cannot involve them in the class and, hence, such students tend to become demoralised and take extra classes after school as parents are worried about anything that might hold their child back. Nearly all teachers surveyed in the study had not received any pre-service training in supporting differently abled students.

“While respondents perceived that training involved in working with students with SEN in the classroom would be beneficial for them and educationally helpful for their students, most reported no, or very little, pre-service training. The majority had just received a two day staff development program at the start of the academic year.”

Khan feels that attitude barriers exist amongst mainstream teachers due to insecurities arising from a lack of knowledge, training and administrative support. Without proper support, inclusive education simply becomes a byword for increasing workloads and job stress for educators. “For instance a teacher with eight years of mainstream experience emphasised her resentment at having to deal with inclusion within her large class, without any assistance. With no training in special education, a heavy class load, and very little planning lead time, not only did she feel unqualified to teach her SEN students, but also resented bring forced to do so,” explains Khan.

“All teachers in the study expressed the need for reduced class sizes,more resources and support services. Since most teachers had not received any special education training in their university studies, they felt unqualified to carry through with the inclusion process,” she adds.

Adopting inclusion requires bringing a change in the current educational system in the UAE, and indeed the Middle East as a whole. As long as people do not see the need for change, the task of bringing about change becomes more difficult, if not impossible. Inclusion is a process that can only be successful if the extant school system, curriculum provision, teaching methods and leadership roles change accordingly.