Why Teacher Training Is the Missing Link in Inclusive Education
Dr. Richa Pandey
I have always felt strongly about the experiences of children with disabilities in our schools. Perhaps what troubles me most is how easily we use the word inclusion in education without asking what inclusion actually looks like for a child.
A child may be enrolled in a neighbourhood school and still be excluded from education. They may sit in the same classroom as everyone else but be unable to follow the lesson, participate in activities, access learning materials, communicate with the teacher or make friends. They may be repeatedly removed from the classroom, treated as a problem, punished for behaviour adults do not understand, or simply expected to cope with a school never designed around their needs.
This raises an uncomfortable question: Are our schools actually inclusive, or have we simply become better at enrolling children with disabilities?
India has certainly made important policy commitments. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 speaks explicitly about equitable and inclusive education and calls for assistive devices, accessible learning materials, appropriate technology and flexible approaches to assessment for children with disabilities1. More importantly, it makes a significant promise about teachers: knowledge of how to teach children with specific disabilities should be an integral part of all teacher education programmes, not something reserved for special educators.
That is an important shift in thinking. If children with disabilities are increasingly expected to learn in ordinary schools, then the ordinary teacher cannot be expected to remain an ordinary teacher who simply happens to have a child with a disability sitting in the classroom. Yet this is where the gap between policy and practice becomes visible.
The latest UDISE+ data for 2024-25 show that only 54.9 per cent of schools reported having ramps with handrails for children with special needs, while only 35.6 per cent reported CWSN-friendly toilets2. These numbers are important, but infrastructure is only one part of inclusion. A ramp can help a child enter a building. It cannot, by itself, make a child feel that they belong there.
Who makes the classroom accessible? The teacher does.
Can a teacher explain a concept in more than one way? Can they recognise that a child who does not respond verbally may still understand? Can they adapt an activity without making the child feel singled out? Can they provide additional time or alternative modes of assessment? Can they distinguish between deliberate misbehaviour and behaviour arising from communication difficulties, sensory overload or other disability-related needs?
These should not be specialised questions.
The current framework under Samagra Shiksha already recognises the need to build the capacity of general teachers, alongside special educators, to adapt curriculum and respond to the learning needs of children with disabilities3. But if inclusive education is to become the norm rather than a project attached to particular schools, this preparation has to move much deeper into teacher education itself.
A teacher should not first encounter disability when a child with a disability enters their classroom. Teacher education institutions- DIETs, SCERTs, colleges of education and universities, need to treat inclusive pedagogy as foundational teacher knowledge. Prospective teachers should encounter disability not as a one-time paper or a theoretical unit, but through classroom observation, case-based learning, practical exposure, universal design for learning, differentiated instruction, accessible assessment and conversations with children and families.
And this preparation must go beyond particular disability categories.
Teachers also need to understand the social experience of disability: stigma, bullying, isolation, dependence, communication barriers and the ways in which school routines can unintentionally exclude children. They need to understand that the question is not simply, “What is wrong with this child?” but also, “What is it about my classroom, my pedagogy or my school that is creating a barrier for this child?” This becomes particularly urgent when we think about safety.
Children with disabilities are not only entitled to learn; they are entitled to be safe while doing so. Yet recent cases reported across India remind us that vulnerability does not disappear when a child enters a school.
In December 2025, an Indian court convicted a principal and a teacher for sexually assaulting and harassing specially-abled minor girls. One of the survivors was a 13-year-old girl with hearing and speech impairment4,5.
In March 2025, four people, including the principal, vice-principal and a teacher, were booked in Noida following allegations that a 10-year-old student with special needs had been assaulted6. And in June 2026, the Punjab and Haryana High Court dealt with a case involving the alleged sexual assault of a blind, intellectually disabled minor girl whose pregnancy was discovered only after intervention by a Child Welfare Committee official7.
These cases are not arguments against inclusive education. They are arguments for taking meaningful inclusion and safeguarding much more seriously.
A child who has difficulty communicating may face additional barriers in reporting abuse. A child who depends on adults for mobility, personal care or communication may be particularly vulnerable to exploitation. A child who has repeatedly been told that their behaviour is difficult or that they are a burden may hesitate to complain when something is wrong. This is why teacher preparation cannot be separated from child protection.
Teachers need to know not only how to teach a child who uses a wheelchair, communicates through sign language, has a visual impairment, has an intellectual disability or learns differently. They also need to know how to create classrooms in which children can communicate discomfort, recognise unsafe behaviour, seek help and be believed. And inclusion cannot mean simply assigning a child to a mainstream classroom and leaving the teacher to manage alone.
Special educators, general teachers, school leaders, counsellors, families and support services have to work together. Samagra Shiksha already provides for special educators, assistive devices, teaching-learning materials, therapeutic support and teacher training. The challenge is to ensure that these supports do not become parallel systems around an unchanged classroom. The question we should be asking is not whether a child with a disability is physically present in school.
Is the child learning? Is the child participating? Is the child safe? Does the child have friends? Can the child ask for help? Does the teacher believe the child is capable of learning? And perhaps most importantly: Does the child feel that this school belongs to them?
NEP 2020 has given India an important policy vocabulary for thinking about inclusion. Samagra Shiksha has created structures and financial provisions to support it. But policies cannot transform classrooms on their own.
Teachers will.
If we genuinely believe that children with disabilities belong in our neighbourhood schools, then we must prepare every teacher for that reality. Inclusive education cannot remain the responsibility of the special educator, the resource room or a handful of sensitised teachers. If every classroom is meant to be inclusive, then every teacher must be prepared to teach every child.
Until that happens, we need to be honest about where we stand. We may have moved significantly from keeping children with disabilities outside the school gate. But inclusion begins only when the child enters the classroom and finds that the classroom has changed for them too.
….References
- National Education Policy 2020 – official PDF static.pib.gov ↩
- UDISE+ 2024-25 Report/Booklet (Ministry of Education) udiseplus ↩
- Samagra Shiksha: Inclusive Education for Children with Special Needs (CWSN) ↩
- India Today Article (Mumbai POCSO Court Conviction): https://www.indiatoday.in/… ↩
- The Week Article (POCSO Court Case): https://www.theweek.in/… ↩
- Indian Express Article (Noida Teacher Arrested): https://indianexpress.com/… ↩
- Indian Express Article (Punjab & Haryana High Court Case): https://indianexpress.com/… ↩
Dr Richa Pandey is an education researcher and educator currently working with the Ravi J. Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation at IIM Ahmedabad. She holds a PhD in Education from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. Her research interests include children’s literature, educational equity, inclusion and learning.