CURRICULUM ADAPTATION AS A TOOL FOR EQUITY: ADDRESSING BARRIERS IN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Curriculum adaptation plays a crucial role in promoting inclusive education by addressing the diverse learning needs, abilities, and backgrounds of all students within mainstream classrooms. This process involves modifying educational content, teaching methodologies, assessment strategies, and learning environments to ensure equitable access to quality education for every learner. Effective curriculum adaptation fosters personalized learning opportunities that enhance student engagement, motivation, and academic success, thereby supporting holistic development. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 emphasizes curriculum adaptation as a key strategy to advance inclusivity across India’s education system. It advocates for flexible, learner-centric curricula that accommodate multiple learning pathways and styles, incorporate life skills, and encourage universal design for learning (UDL) principles. NEP 2020 underscores the importance of empowering teachers with specialized training and resources to effectively implement adaptations, ensuring that education is accessible, equitable, and relevant to all students, including those with disabilities and from marginalized groups, thereby enhancing overall educational quality and social inclusion. The main objectives of the present study were: (i) to study about the principles and significance of curriculum adaptation in inclusive education, (ii) to study about the different steps that can be followed for curriculum adaptation in inclusive education, (iii) to highlight the key aspects of curriculum adaptation for inclusive education forwarded in NEP 2020, (iv) to study about the different ways as to how curriculum adaptation can support students with disabilities under NEP 2020, (v) to study about the roles of teachers in designing inclusive and adaptable curricula for diverse learners. Descriptive method was used for the present study, and the data were collected from the various secondary sources.