Mainstreaming students with disabilities into regular classrooms

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Mainstreaming Students with Disabilities into Regular Classrooms

The issue of mainstreaming students with disabilities into the regular classrooms has more often than not been raised in the education context mainly between parents and school administrators . It is a that has been widely explored by academicians focusing on the benefits of and demerits of such a system . Mainstreaming simply refers to the practice by schools to integrate students with certain disabilities into the regular classes . It is to be noted that the success

of such mainstreaming depends on an individual student 's needs and facilities that have been availed for such a system to ensure that it achieves the set objectives . An analysis of the benefits of mainstreaming is also bound to differ depending on the perspective that one is taking . The teachers ' or the parents ' perspective is bound to differ greatly from that of the student . Most educators and scholars with an interest in special education allude to the fact that mainstreaming in the long run is bound to be beneficial to the special students . It will arm them with better social skills and academic prowess alongside other benefits . It has also advantages to the non special students , giving them exposure to the various challenges in life

Mainstreaming of students with disabilities into regular classrooms should not be misconstrued to mean that they will be completely integrated into the regular classes neglecting their special needs . They will still be given special attention . Jenkinson says that it merely creates a need to identify those needs and investigate ways of providing for them in the regular class so that students may fulfill the main purpose of schooling-learning (143

If implemented appropriately and effectively , mainstreaming can help bring out the best out of the disabled student . This is a program that requires collaboration between a special educator and a regular teacher as special programs that are sensitive to special students needs have to be prepared . The special educator would also provide extra tuition outside the regular classes so as to keep them at par with the rest of the regular students

One advantage noted of mainstreaming students with disabilities into regular classrooms is the larger benefit it has extending even to the regular students . A great emphasis of education is placed on diversity Students are taught to be tolerant and to cope with people who are different from them be it racially or culturally . Mainstreaming gives regular students a chance of interacting with disabled students firsthand exposing them to the challenges that other people face in life and the odds that such challenges place along their paths . Jenkinson notes that one point driven home by mainstreaming advocates is the that it will not just benefit students with disabilities by including them in the mainstream , but it will create schools that are more effective for all students because of the great emphasis placed on diversity (143 ) There are enough reasons to indicate that such an exposure to diversity...