Farah Farida Tantiani
(tantiani@yahoo.com)
Fakultas Pendidikan Psikologi Universitas Negeri Malang
Abstract: Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Republik Indonesia no 70 tahun 2009 stated that special needs children can study in regular classrooms. This regulation state that Indonesia agreed to apply inclusive education program in all educational level, from
preschool to university. Inclusive education believes that special needs children hold the same right to learn in the same classroom like other students. They share the uniqueness and variabilities like the others. Despite the regulation, the common practice of inclusion for students with disabilities has been controversial among both theorists and practitioners. In practising inclusive education program, teachers still have difficulties to match the educational program for special needs children and regular students, so they separate special needs children with their classmates in some of school subject. A few school even only accepting few highly functioning special needs children in their school so they can still apply the same curriculum with the rest of students. This article is trying to discuss the practise of inclusive education program held in few Indonesian schools. Inclusive education program believed to be benefiting the special needs children because they can have more frequent interaction with nondisabled peers, so that each of them can develop an increasing awareness. In the other hand, in practise, inclusive education program may also harm the special needs
children because the school system are not ready to conduct inclusive education program. The source being used to discuss these issues are personal experience of the writer, and also psychology literature materials related to the education of children with special needs.
key words: inclusive education, special needs children