Moving towards incorporating inclusion in school education : a case study of a school in Maldives / Khadheeja Abdul Hakeem

Abstract:
The debate of the inclusive education system has been the topic of the interest for many researchers and educators. This study explores the significance of inclusive education in a country with a policy of no child should be left out of the education system and aimed at bridging the gaps in existing literature and policies and the actual implementation process. It explore the importance of inclusive education for the whole society as well as for the students with physical and mental disabilities in the Maldives.
Eventhough, Maldives has adopted an inclusive educational policy in 2008, it is not implemented properly and still many changes are left out of the education system. Hence this study focuses on the challenges faced by Maldivian education system sector for implementing the policy. It looks at the role of the educators, school leaders and policy makers in the implementation process.
Inorder to find out the restrictions and barriers for the implementation, a a case study research was designed with interpretivism philosophy.. To collect the data , mail survey questionnaires were used with the sample of 15 participants including teachers and leaders of a school from Maldives. The collected data was then arranged in a usable form and then coded according to the nature of answers given by the respondents. he result of this study was then interpreted to find out the barriers for the implementation of an inclusive education system and what needs to be done to cross these barriers.
The result showed that there were a number of barriers to the implementation of an inclusive education system which include lack of awareness, lack of training, lack of appropriate policies to implement the national inclusive education framework and lack of resources.