SPECIAL SEGREGATED SCHOOLING CONTINUES TO ISOLATE PEOPLE WITH Essay

SPECIAL SEGREGATED SCHOOLING CONTINUES TO ISOLATE PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES FROM MAINSTREAM OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC LIFE. CRITICALLY DISCUSS - Essay Example With Porter (2001) appreciating the diversity in definition of children with disabilities, the definition by National Council of Education Research and Training, NCERT (2006, p.2), includes those with physical challenges in intellect, hearing, vision and locomotion together with victims of social conflicts and natural catastrophes, street children and those that would be extremely deprived socially and economically. Scholars have linked their lower participation in the national workforce largely to exclusion from educational systems which yields poverty and dependence among these persons, causing them to live in isolation, despair and neglect. This paper looks at the effect of segregated schooling in isolating people living with disabilities from the economic and social opportunities in the society. Indeed, specialised segregated schooling isolates people living with disabilities from tapping into the mainstream of economic and social life. Taking the Irish context as an example, its schooling system was segregated and separated for pupils considered as handicapped as early as in the 1950s with pupils being excluded from regular school setting to specialised schools (Winter & O’Raw 2010, p.6). But due to international influence, this system was slowly scrapped off with an inclusive education system being adopted albeit some portions of the specialised schools were maintained. The World Health Organisation, WHO (2011) notes that even in countries where enrolment to primary schools are high like in Eastern Europe, a large portion of children living with disabilities fail to attend schools. As of 2002, the rates of their enrolment stood at 59%, 58% and 81% as compared to 93%, 97% and 96% among the normal children in Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria respectively. According to the National Disability Authority (2011), in Ireland, 64% of