Bridging Boundaries Navigating The Intersection Of Education , Diversity And Technology

In the recent 5 th edition of the Annual Flagship Report by UNESCO in 2023, Seeds of
Change, emphasis has been laid on the increasingly crucial and intense challenges which are
being posed by the climate change. Such challenges have made it important for the school
curriculum to imbibe in the children with the importance of environmental education. The
National Education Policy 2020 rightly aligns with India’s vision of reducing GHG
emissions. In conformance with the SDG 4 about inclusive and equitable quality education,
the policy focuses on promoting lifelong learning for children from all the communities with
equal benefits. A primary classroom is like a plant with numerous buds wherein every bud
has its own uniqueness. The identification of individual talent in all shapes and forms is
necessary for it to grab opportunities helpful to flourish it. A distinct problem prevalent is the
subtle decisions which often push out the pool of individual talents from the education
system. Unlike straight to the point, such decisions include ways like exclusion from
curricula, irrelevant learning framework, unequal resource allocation, biased assessments, out
of the way textbook matter, violence and subjective negligence. The factors responsible for
exclusion may include politics resources or culture.

Inclusivity has been a point of concern, throughout the world, specifically in the world having
over 240 million children with disabilities. Skill development and unleashing the full
potential Ice up immense importance in such a scenario wherein such population is
overlooked while policy making. The failure of decision makers acts as a barrier in fulfilling
the ambitions and dreams for future. Since times, children having disabilities have been
denied to grab the opportunities in their communities. Inclusive education initiatives can be
the first step towards eliminating exclusion. Inclusive education can be expressed to devise
fair opportunities for children having disabilities or speakers of minority communities. In the

presence of various diverse groups, the growth among children side by side shows significant
difference from the one shaping individual talent through digital education. For the first step
towards inclusive education, changes not only at elementary levels but at all levels of society
become a requisite. The changes at levels would include training to teachers, refurbishing the
buildings and provision of accessible learning material to the children.

Talking about the top-down approach, the framework, with respect to the loss and policies
governing the education system at national level, shall align with the “Convention on rights
of persons with disabilities.” A convention on rights of persons with disabilities is responsible
for the collection and analysis of data related to education system and policies to further
improvising the effectiveness of the services provided. UNICEF is one of the renowned
bodies which works to promote initiatives related to children development. It has laid down 4
pillars for promoting inclusive education which are Advocacy, Awareness-raising, Capacity-
building and Implementation support. UNICEF emphasises on advocating inclusive
education through means of focus-group discussions, high-level events and outreaching the
community. Next talking about the second pillar that is to raise awareness throughout
targeted research and Roundtable discussions. Some of the experienced individuals from the
industry can be called upon to conduct workshops. The third pillar that is capacity building
shall focus mainly on the grooming and imparting knowledge to teachers, administrators and
communicators. The last phase shall be the crucial one about implementation support
through means of continuous evaluation and monitoring.

An alternative approach which has risen to prominence these days is about harnessing
technology for making education accessible for all. Technology acts as a prominent enabler
and owing to its widely available access to people, it makes learning material available for all
and ensures similar access for all. A roadblock for leveraging the technological advancement
in education system is the lack of prominent funding which can be overcome through means
of strategized fund allocation. Based on a survey, an inclination of a segment has also been
witnessed towards the traditional assistive tools which were used from past times for
education. 9 out of 10 adults were of the opinion that the technological devices had replaced
the traditional approach and tools in the education system. Technological advancement comes
with a band of repercussions including those of dehumanising effects. The children have
somewhere or the other lost the sense of connection which acted as a catalyst to support
learning in recent times when children were being together.

Therefore, Inclusive education is not only about inclusion of the children from all
communities or speakers from minority communities and harnessing the technology to make
education accessible for all but also about demarcating the boundaries between the traditional
and the modern approaches of imparting education so as to provide the children with an
atmosphere wherein the sense of connexion helps them learn better.

Written By :Ms. Nausheen Fatima,PGDM, Jaipuria Institute of Management