Abstract:
Inclusive education has become a high priority around the world, and
also become a global agenda, as an essential component in regular
education policies of many countries in the world's strategy for
achieving Education for All (EFA). As UNICEF (2004) reported, for
Sri Lankan children, the span of compulsory education extends from 5 -
14 years, though 10% of these children are out of school. Therefore, we
have to look at Inclusive Education as a strategy to reach the goal of
EFA. The Sri Lankan government is convinced about the need but to
implement inclusive education successfully as a strategy to reach the
goal of EFA, a uniform understanding of the concept of inclusion,
commitment on the part of policy makers, individuals and institutions
responsible for the implementation of policies, legislation, detailed
regulations and guidelines, and inclusive policies as well are needed.
Therefore, it seems that no concrete step appears to have been taken
with regard to inclusive education in Sri Lanka. Even at policy level,
integration and special schools remain the focus of planning special
education programmes. In the above context, the overall objective of
this study was to find out how inclusive education can be implemented
as a strategy in the education system to meet learning needs of all
children in Sri Lanka.
