In an inclusive classroom, a teacher should:

Inclusive education, as envisioned under the RPWD Act 2016 and NEP 2020, is a pedagogical approach in which children with and without disabilities learn together in the same classroom. Its foundational belief is that ability is not fixed or absent — every child possesses some capacity to learn, and a teacher's role is to recognise and build on each learner's individual strengths rather than segregate, sympathise with, or label any child based on perceived limitations.

Applying this principle here, the practice that reflects true inclusion is holding the conviction that every child, whatever their ability level, has the potential to learn according to their own strengths — this is exactly what an inclusive-classroom teacher must believe and act on.

• Treating disabled learners with pity and sympathy frames disability as something to be pitied rather than as a difference to be supported — a paternalistic, deficit-based stance, not inclusion.

• Labelling children with terms such as ‘handicapped child’ or ‘retarded child’ stigmatizes them by their impairment, reducing them to a category instead of recognising individual strengths — this violates non-discriminatory, person-first practice.

• Attending only to gifted and talented children excludes the rest of the class from the teacher's attention, directly contradicting the inclusive commitment to educate and support every learner together.

Hence, the belief that every child has the potential to learn as per their own abilities and strengths is the defining attitude of inclusive pedagogy.