Bringing children with disabilities into mainstream schools turns the whole system upside down. Maybe that is what is needed because it forces us to look at education differently. In many countries the practiced system of education is a system of exclusion. But we are so used to this, that we accept it without question.

We put barriers everywhere, from admission and school fees, to standard learning assessments and exams, and, in many schools a foreign language of instruction.

We all have seen the excited and happy children, eager to carry their schoolbag, running off on their first day of school. Those children come home in the afternoon, their enthusiasm gone, their curiosity squashed. How did this happen?

The Myth of the “Typical” Child

As parents and as educators, we compare and measure children against some mythic “typical” child. A child that really does not exist. And the child in question, an individual with unique characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, slowly disappears. So, thank you for disability! Thank you for weakness we can see, for individual support needs which are obvious, for a chance to make education work for each and every child.

I have four children – the second one has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). I only wish I had had him first. Because he is the one who taught me to stop comparing him to a milestone list, a development sheet, or to the other children his age, and start looking at him. And that’s what inclusion offers us: a chance to see our children – all of them – as they are: unique, diverse, precious, whole.

Collaboration Over Competition

A child with a disability entering a regular school tends to become automatically a problem, starting with physical and educational accessibility and the admission process. How do you test such a child? Do you have to? Now bring that child into the classroom. Here it can get a little trickier. The difficulties, however, are still not with the child but with the system. The child with a disability holds up a mirror for us, showing us what we are really doing. And what are we doing? Are our classrooms communities of learners or communities of competitors?

It seems children are more encouraged to work for grades than for knowledge and their peers tend to be rivals rather than collaborators. Cooperation and sharing are often not taught or valued, and in fact, often discouraged (Do not share your work, do not copy, do not talk in class, etc.)

However, when there are learners with disability in class, somehow wonderful human qualities become essential. I believe some key characteristics of an inclusive classroom thus are:

Key characteristics

Kindness: Its importance cannot be overestimated. No teacher can ever be excused for being unkind to a child. Yet, belittling and ridiculing or sarcasm are so common in classrooms that we hardly notice them. Creating a classroom atmosphere of kindness and respect is a teacher’s first responsibility, and it is the single most important step toward inclusion.

Group work: children need to learn to work in teams. It is a critical skill for life as an adult and it makes the best use of the range of talents and skills in every class. Nothing in adult life is possible without teamwork, yet we seem to discourage children from practicing the vital skills of consensus building, turn taking and appreciating the contributions of others.

Buddy-system: vary how you pair up children – not always a bright learner supporting a weaker learner – so that each one has something to offer the other as well as something to learn. There is no one who does not have a positive contribution to make.

Realistic expectations: don’t expect the same things from each child. We wouldn’t expect a house painter to do the electric wiring or a doctor to cut your hair. We are all wired with our own individual capacities.

Adapt: teachers often behave as if the syllabus is written in stone. Different learners have different learning goals. So why not adjust the content, the time allotted, the skill level, to suit a child’s individual needs? Once we get away from the idea that learning is a competition with winners and losers, all sorts of new approaches are possible.

Praise effort, not intelligence: intelligence is not in anyone’s control – why should we be praised for it? Effort is. And effort almost always trumps intelligence.

Who Is the Problem: The Child or the System?

Once we change the ground rules, once we understand that learning is cooperative and not competitive and that we are all in this together, inclusion becomes a simple task. It can work in our schools as it works in our families by just learning to adapt to the individual needs of each member. That is also how we can create a more just and inclusive society.

The right to education is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Inclusion is one of the major challenges facing education systems around the world. In any classroom there is a wide range of learners and thus a wide range of learning support needs that a teacher needs to take into account when planning and teaching and when assessing learning. Classrooms are not homogenous and should not be treated or taught as if they were.

Inclusive education recognizes that every child has unique characteristics, interests, abilities and learning support needs and therefore, if the right to education is to mean anything, education systems must be designed and implemented to value each learner and help all of them to reach their potential – which will be different for different children! Most learners that experience difficulties do not need different or “special education”, but they need more flexible and individualized education.

The Myth of “Special” Versus “Ordinary” Learners

It is a myth that there are different categories of learners such as those with “special” and with “ordinary” needs. Education systems have clung to this myth against better judgment, and continue to use undifferentiated instruction as the norm. And thus, there are also no “special needs” children. All children have the same needs of belonging, love, friendship, safety, health, stimulation and self-esteem. “Special needs” has become a new stigmatizing label, which reinforces the deeply entrenched deficit views of ‘difference‘, which define certain learners as ‘lacking something’.

Special needs labels are not useful for teachers as they say little about how to teach a certain child. Furthermore, a teacher may have two learners with the same disability who need very different teaching-learning approaches, simply because children with disabilities are as different from each other as any other group of children.

There Is No Special Education—Only Good Education

There is no “special education” – just education, which can only be of good quality if it is inclusive of, and responsive to learning diversity. Good teaching is good teaching for all children, because good teachers look for a child’s individual strengths as well as learning support needs, and address those effectively.

Inclusive education focuses on what children can do and on their potential for further learning, based on the philosophy that every child can learn, just not always the same things, during the same time, with the same results. That is human diversity!

Support Makes Inclusion Possible

An effective support system is critical if schools are to become inclusive. ’Support’ includes everything that enables children to learn. The most important forms of support are available to every school: children supporting children, teachers supporting teachers, parents becoming partners in the education of their children, and communities supporting their local schools.

Inclusive schools welcome children of all abilities, by placing learners together according to age and without regard of ability level. Years of research has shown that there are significant academic, social, emotional, and physical benefits to teaching children with and without disabilities or learning difficulties in the same class setting, for both those with and without disabilities/learning difficulties.

We are thrilled to announce that BRAC, the world’s largest non-profit organization, has reached out to incorporate our book ‘My Name is Runa’ into their curriculum.

As part of this collaboration, we recently conducted a comprehensive training on inclusive education—both online and in-person—for over 40 participants from various BRAC education programs. The training covered key topics such as “What is a disability?”, “Who has a disability?”, “How do you know?”, and “Is it important to know?” Through a mix of individual and group activities, short videos, and other visual aids, participants explored the importance of creating inclusive learning environments.

A major focus of the session was the need for inclusive children’s books. BRAC has already taken important steps by including children with disabilities in their schools. Since BRAC schools are eventually integrated into the national education system under the Ministry of Education, the potential impact of this initiative is significant—and may continue to grow over time.

Children, by nature, are curious, open-minded, and adaptable. Introducing inclusive values early helps them embrace diversity and can shape them into advocates for empathy and social change as they grow.

Through this partnership, students in 6,190 BRAC schools will meet Runa and learn about her life—spreading the message of inclusion to thousands of young learners.

Are you interested in bringing ‘My Name is Runa’ to your school or program? Contact us today

Hello

I am Runa.

“I have Cerebral Palsy and I live in Bangladesh. Because I walk and talk with difficulty, everyone calls me “an idiot”! Now I play the lead role in a storybook, in which I tell everyone what it is like to have a disability and to be teased. My story has a surprising end. I hope it helps to raise awareness about how it feels to grow up with a disability”

The book “My name is Runa” is based on the true story of Runa, an 18-year old girl in Bangladesh with Cerebral Palsy (CP). The story highlights her experiences growing up, both positive and negative. Runa, who is now a teaching assistant at the Niketan school for children with special needs in Dhaka, will visit mainstream schools in Bangladesh to talk about CP.