Attitude of Pre-Service Teachers'Towards Inclusive Education – A Study

Global education not only provides conceptual knowledge but also helps develop life and career skills, learning and innovation skills, as well as information, media and technology application skills in all students.

All children learn through their interactions with other people – parents, siblings and peers – and through experiences gained from various environments in their lives – home, neighbourhood and school. This is just as true for children with impairments. However, this is often forgotten as these children are considered ‘different’. Inclusive education will help provide a type of learning setup for such exceptional children.

Inclusive education is a real implementation of the basic human right to education. It is not only about attaining universal access to education but also universal access to meaningful and purposeful knowledge and learning for ALL. For this to happen, teachers, schools and systems may need to change so that they can better accommodate the diversity of needs that pupils have and that they can be included in all aspects of school life. Teachers are the greatest assets of any education system. They stand in the interface of transmission of knowledge, skills and values. Therefore, a teacher's attitude is crucial and has been globally accepted to be significantly associated with the quality of education in general and students’ learning outcomes in particular. If teachers posses a positive attitude towards inclusive education, it will lead to an all-round development of exceptional children and will help in sustainable development.

This study is an attempt to find the attitude of pre-service teachers towards inclusive education. The survey method was used to find out the attitude of pre-service teachers. It revealed that pre-service teachers possess a positive attitude towards inclusive education, but have few doubts and fears, which can be overcome by providing proper training.