Abstract
Consequent upon a worldwide movement, inclusive education has emerged as a way to eliminate
discrimination, inequality and injustice in accessing school. The UN organs such as UNESCO and
UNICEF have been active to pursue governments in developing countries particularly in the
subcontinent to improve educational access through inclusive education. The countries i.e.
Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have positively responded to the call for inclusive education. The
context of three countries, however, varies in terms of religious beliefs, languages, cultural
traditions and socio-economic realities. The response patterns of these countries clearly reflect the
contextual differences in setting the goals and action plans for the implementation of inclusive
education. The focus of inclusion in India and Pakistan seems to be the children with disabilities,
whereas, the focus shifts to marginalized children in Bangladesh. Moreover, India launched its first
Action Plan for Inclusive Education of Children and Youth with Disabilities in Aug 20th, 2005.
Bangladesh, 5 years later, revised its National Education Policy with the features of inclusive
education in 2010. Pakistan, although introduced the concept of inclusive education in its National
Policy for Persons with Disabilities in 2002 but it remained alien to Ministry of Education. The
main objective of the study was to review the educational reforms in Subcontinent (Pakistan, India
& Bangladesh) to improve the access to school for children with disabilities. Nature of the study is
qualitative and descriptive analytical method was used to desk review policy and legislative
documents along with empirical studies. This study examined the underlying assumptions shaping
up the current practices of inclusive education in the subcontinent.
Abdul Hameed, Afaf Manzoor. (2019) Similar Agenda, Diverse Strategies: A Review of Inclusive Education Reforms in the Subcontinent, Bulletin of Education & Research, Volume 41, Issue 2.
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