LORENCE T.

DE GUIA

BSED-ENGLISH 3D

NARRATIVE REPORT ON INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Inclusive Education means that no child should be left behind. All students must be given an
equal opportunity for their right to be in school regardless of their culture, tribe, religion,
races, regular and irregular physical abilities and forms. Inclusivity does not just limit to
accepting all kinds of students, this also means providing their needs as individual with
unique preferences and ways of learning.

To know more about the said matter, we were given a task by our professor in Elective 2-
Inclusive Education subject, to interview some teachers especially those who are under
Special Education (SPED) program or those teachers teaching students with special needs.
With our interview we have gathered some information with regards to their own
perspective about inclusive education, the DEPED mandate, rationale and goal, the
challenges, benefits and drawbacks they have encountered while on the field of their
profession, and their recommendations in relevance to inclusive education especially on
accommodating students with special needs.

TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVE ON INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

According to DepEd, Special Education in the Philippines has only served 2% of the targeted
2.2 million children with disabilities in the country who live without access to a basic human
right: “the right to education”. Most of these children live in rural and far flung areas whose
parents need to be aware of educational opportunities that these children could avail of. The
said department has also organized the urgency to address this problem and therefore,
guarantees the right for these children to receive appropriate education within the regular
or inclusive classroom setting. Inclusive education embraces the philosophy of accepting all
children regardless of race, size, shape, color, ability or disability with support from school
staff, students, parents and the community. This enforces the department to a DepEd Order
(DO) 72 series of 2019 otherwise known as Inclusive Education as Strategy for Increasing
Participation Rate of Children.

All the teachers know about inclusive education that it is now the goal being strived by the
Department of Education to let everyone have an access to” free and quality education for
all”. This implies that the said department aims to improve the quality of education by means
of inclusivity especially to those who have special needs. It aims to bring non-disabled
children and children with disabilities together in one classroom. This also means to say that
the teachers should have differentiated instructions and that the pacing of teaching now will
become slower as expected.
With this mandate, the schools are now accepting students with special need together with
the normal students in a regular classroom set up trying their best to achieve the goal of the
department for an inclusive education. With their urge to give the students the most normal
set up as they could, it is inevitable to encounter difficulties and challenges.
CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED BY THE TEACHERS/SCHOOLS IN PROMOTING AND
IMPLEMENTING INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

There are a number of travails encountered by the teachers and the institution with regards
to the implementation of the program. First, is the lack of teachers who are into handling
students with special needs, Sir Bony said that most of the regular public schools do not have
SPED Teachers. He added that if the department could not yet add an item for these teachers,
they must give trainings and seminars to the regular teachers so that they may also be
trained and be well informed in handling these kinds of students since it is already
happening that these public schools are accommodating students with special needs in a
regular classroom setting with teachers having no idea on handling such set up. With the lack
of trainings and seminars, it will really be a barrier for the goal of the department to promote
an inclusive education.

Same happens to one of the pioneering SPED School in Davao City, the Davao City Special
School. Since, most of the students who have disabilities or differently abled are enrolled in
the said school, and that they have also the number of teachers who are handling SPED
programs, yet they still encounter problems especially on their co-teachers who are only
knowledgeable in teaching regular classes with normal students. Ma’am Marilyn, the
president of SPED Teachers in Davao City, said that many of their teachers are really having
difficulties when some of their students are actually those who needs special
accommodation. Some teachers would have really complained on how are they going to
handle these types of students.

Another personal story coming from Sir Uldarico, a teacher who is teaching students with
Autism Spectrum Syndrome and Down Syndrome. According to him, it is really a challenge
to his day to day life as a teacher handling these types of students. These children are not
paying attention and perhaps have their own world, and roaming around his classroom
while classes are going on. He also shared the times when he had his student who grabs his
shirt and even spit to him. Moreover, being get used of these scenarios he was still able
contribute to the development of the child by having the unfathomable patience.

THE BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Inclusive education is really a great scheme of the Department of Education. It gives an equal
opportunity to all types of students especially those who have special needs. These types of
students can feel normal being with where they can feel that they are engaged and affiliated
being with the regular students. The regular students will also be taught of the values of
giving importance, contentment and being thankful of what they have. For the part of the
teachers, good for those who are really into the field of specialization of SPED, but for those
who are expected to teach regular students, they will be trained also not just for their
proficiency as a teacher but for their holistic development as a person. They will also learn
new teaching strategies and classroom management methods in handling an inclusive
classroom. Going higher, the school administrators will be able to assess the performance of
their teachers especially on handling students with special needs.

On the other hand, there are also disadvantages of the program implementation. Teachers
will get difficulty in teaching because as prior stated, the teacher will have differentiated
instructions if possible individual accommodation of the students. There will be also a waste
time for a teacher if he/she still need to undergo trainings instead of making it a time for
teaching and doing regular workloads.

RECOMMENDATION

The program is really good. Yet there are still things to consider and to strengthen. Though,
teachers, even non-Sped are really doing well, yet it is really more for the DepEd. The
department must consider the lack of trained teachers handling students with special needs
before implementing the program. Hence, more avenues for educating the teachers should
be given

It would also be a recommendation to the government or the department to give additional

item for SPED Teachers especially in the secondary level. Though it demands for another
budget but it will somehow solve the problem.

Nevertheless, the quest for inclusivity should always start at home, since parents knows best
how their child behaves, they must also take part in the implementation of the program. The
schools must also always accommodate students with special needs, the teacher, either
trained or not, should always understand the diversity of his/her classroom.

Because it is a basic human right and more than just a privilege, let us give it to all, their right
to have an access to quality education, an inclusive education for all.