Well articulated and totally realistic concerns. I have been since long of the opinion that special education at least upto upper primary level is a must. So, let us better the lot of special schools than harp on so-called inclusive education from primary level. SSA was at best a government scheme and its fate and that of its employees is precarious. Less said about students' destiny!
With thanks and regards (Rajesh Asudani) Assistant General Manager Market Intelligence Unit Reserve Bank of India Nagpur Tel.: 0712 2806358 (In youth you want things, and then in middle-age you want to want them.) -----Original Message----- From: AccessIndia [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf Of Amiyo Biswas Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2014 2:10 PM To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in Cc: J L Kaul; Dipendra Manocha Subject: [AI] Regarding Inclusive Education and Special School. Dear Friends, Recently I met some of my teacher friends at a meeting of Blind Persons' Association. We were sharing our experiences in our respective fields. We were all surprised to learn that special schools are not getting students after inclusive education was introduced. There are hardly a handful of special schools for us. If these schools with a very low roll strength do not get sufficient students, what will be the lot of the next generation of visually impaired students? Inclusive Education programme is in effect for some years. We should review the situation now. As a project it sounds very good. Disabled children read at normal schools and ideally it helps mainstreaming them into the society. A cursory glance at a classroom will reveal the real situation. In West Bengal, where I live in, the normal student-teacher ratio is about 1-100 in many cases. It is even worse at the primary schools. Moreover, the primary school teachers have to perform various duties during census and election. Besides, they have their daily chore of midday meal. Many of these schools do not have the necessary infrastructure for children with special needs. Accessible toilets are dreams when the normal children do not get these facilities in some cases. There are Special Educators who are supposed to assist the children with special needs. A Special Educator has to cover about 30 schools in a month. Is it possible for him or her to guide a disabled child by meeting him once in a month? We cannot expect him that he will be efficient in Braille, sign language and so on. They are paid very low (hardly Rs. 8,000 per month) and appointed on a contract basis. They tend to quit their jobs whenever there is an opportunity. Why should well-educated young people stick to such a job for so humble a salary? I shall not say that nothing good has come of it. Many disabled children have been enrolled into normal schools or Sarba Shiksha Abhijan. In normal schools there is no pass or fail. So visually challenged children get automatic promotion up to class VIII without ever learning Braille. I have heard of a mentally retarded child who goes to the exam and his invigilator writes his name, roll etc. on his answer paper and he gets promoted. There is yet another benefit. Parents of the disabled children gain financially from the scheme, around Rs. 4,500. The Special Educators earn their living, whatever it is, from this scheme. But this is all at the cost of education. When children with special needs require special training, we are thrusting them into an atmosphere where they feel lonely and isolated. They memorise some rhymes and stories, but they seldom learn arithmetic. As a result they grow up with an inferiority complex. A severe consequence of the scheme is that since the parents earn something from this scheme, they do not send their children to special schools. Most of the special schools cannot enrol their full strength. I do not want to give up with Inclusive Education immediately. But we can do the following to make it more effective: 1. There should be some financial incentive for the parents who send their children to special schools 2. The block-level social welfare officer should try to find a special school for a child with special needs and when no such facility is available, only then the child should be enrolled in Inclusive Education. 3. Special Educators should be paid in line with the regular teachers with all facilities. 4. Braille books, Braille writing frames, Taylor frames and other similar items used by children with special needs should be available at the block level. I shall request all senior members to do something about it. We should write to the ministers of Social Justice and Empowerment, Education and to the PM also. Activists like Mr. Kaul, Mr. Rumta or Dipendra should take initiative with our full support for any action. With best Regards, Amiyo Biswas Cell: +91-9433464329 Clean India Campaign: Let us also chip in! 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The Reserve Bank of India accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. Clean India Campaign: Let us also chip in! Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
