Similar Agenda, Diverse Strategies: A Review of Inclusive Education Reforms in the Subcontinent

Consequent upon a worldwide movement, inclusive education has emerged as a way to eliminate discrimination, inequality and injustice in accessing school. The UN organs such as UNESCO and UNICEF have been active to pursue governments in developing countries particularly in the subcontinent to improve educational access through inclusive education. The countries i.e. Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have positively responded to the call for inclusive education. The context of three countries, however, varies in terms of religious beliefs, languages, cultural traditions and socio-economic realities. The response patterns of these countries clearly reflect the contextual differences in setting the goals and action plans for the implementation of inclusive education. The focus of inclusion in India and Pakistan seems to be the children with disabilities, whereas, the focus shifts to marginalized children in Bangladesh. Moreover, India launched its first Action Plan for Inclusive Education of Children and Youth with Disabilities in Aug 20th, 2005. Bangladesh, 5 years later, revised its National Education Policy with the features of inclusive education in 2010. Pakistan, although introduced the concept of inclusive education in its National Policy for Persons with Disabilities in 2002 but it remained alien to Ministry of Education. The main objective of the study was to review the educational reforms in Subcontinent (Pakistan, India Bangladesh) to improve the access to school for children with disabilities. Nature of the study is qualitative and descriptive analytical method was used to desk review policy and legislative documents along with empirical studies. This study examined the underlying assumptions shaping up the current practices of inclusive education in the subcontinent.