‘ONLINE CLASSES IGNORE NEEDS OF SPECIAL KIDS’Parents of children with special needs feel that the state is not doing enough to tackle the challenge of educating them during the pandemic Mumbai Mirror - 14-08-2020
| Alka Dhupkar alaka.dhup...@timesgroup.com TWEETS @alka_MIRROR Parents of special children feel that the thrust towards online education has ignored the needs of their children. They blame the state government for ignoring the difficulties faced by special children in online classes. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) who run residential schools for special children have raised important demands about education and care of special children during the pandemic. A 40-year-old mother who has quit her job to look after her special child said, “Parents have become students. My son’s school was earlier taking one-on-one classes online in which he tried to pay some attention but now the school is taking common classes on Zoom. He is not interested in them. If I am doing everything at home, including physiotherapy, why should I pay full fees to the school?” she questioned. “Special children can’t be treated just like other children, they have special needs and the schools can’t overlook these real issues,” said the mother. As there are very few schools for special children, none of the parents Mirror spoke to were willing to come on record for fear of their children being suspended. Cerebral palsy, autism, dyslexia and deafness are among the 21 types of conditions which the government classifies as ‘special needs’. Schools run by social welfare department are making sure that the online classes do not exceed a fixed number of hours. “Special children from poor and middle class families are facing most of the difficulties. They can’t afford to have broad screen tabs or laptops. Their mobile phones also have small screens. The children with Down Syndrome are left behind in the online classes unless they are paid personal attention,” said a teacher from an aided school. The schools are trying to teach the children through art and craft classes, online songs and games. “These kids are not able to focus continuously for 40 minutes. They have mood swings and they get bored as their already restricted movements are more limited during the lockdown as they are stuck indoors. They are extra sensitive. We can’t ignore the issue because it is complicated,” said a parent from Borivali. Ajit Kulkarni, co-founder of Anam Prem NGO, Ahmednagar, which has filed a petition in the Bombay High Court recently on the same issue, told Mirror, “When lockdown was first announced, the government asked residential schools to send the special children back to their parents. The parents are not equipped and trained to take care of these children in many areas. Children and parents are both suffering because of this issue. Their health has been affected badly. State government should consider this issue on priority. The government has not made any provision of online education through Doordarshan for these children.” Swagat Thorat, editor of Sparshdnyan, a periodical in Braille, highlighted that the teachers of these special children are specially trained. “We appeal to the state government to have a video conference meeting with all stakeholders of special children schools. School owners have to pay the different overheads. Parents are also in a difficult position as their child’s education is getting affected. Negligence is not the answer but having a dialogue is.” Dr Samir Dalwai, New Horizons Child Development Center, Mumbai emphasised on individualised curriculum for special children. His center has worked on a new online curriculum considering the challenges of virtual education. His advice to professionals and special schools is to make it more interactive and individualized. [image: Picture] Children with special needs find it harder to focus during online classes -- 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.. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AccessIndia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to accessindia+unsubscr...@accessindia.org.in. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/a/accessindia.org.in/d/msgid/accessindia/CADetga-cV5P7zJVGwdU9fAgrNhHA6t-7-RZBkmKnNna31%2BFEYQ%40mail.gmail.com.
