Date:08/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/edu/2008/12/08/stories/2008120850410200.htm Education Plus
Engineering a new path for special students Kalasalingam University offers a 6-year integrated B. Tech course for speech and hearing impaired students. Photo: S. James Helping hand: The Director of Speech and Hearing Impaired Programme, Dr. M. Venkatesulu, interacting with students of the B.Tech programme for speech and hearing impaired students, at Kalasalingam University, Krishnankoil. The two years of experience in imparting engineering knowledge to speech and hearing impaired students by Kalasalingam University, Krishnankoil, has been encouraging. Buoyed by students' response to the Speech and Hearing Impaired Programme (SHIP), the private university located on the foothills of the Western Ghats in Virudhunagar district, is now exploring the possibility of providing engineering education to visually disabled students too, according to its vice-chancellor C. Thangaraj. "When we were thinking of doing something innovative for the benefit of the society at large, this unique idea struck us," he said. The first challenge for the university was that the students should be taught science as there was no science stream in higher secondary education for these disabled students. Secondly, the students did not have the option of learning English in most of the special schools. Taking into account all these tasks, the university tailored a 6-year integrated B. Tech course for students who complete Class X in their first attempt. This unique course has attracted students not only from southern States but also from as far as Bihar and Meghalaya. True to its spirit of inclusive education, the programme has given opportunity to as many as 59 girls to pursue engineering education. After unsuccessful attempts to tap government assistance for imparting education to disabled students, Chancellor T. Kalasalingam himself came forward to bear the additional cost. He has sponsored free education to 30 students (inclusive of tuition fee, books and hostel fee) and 50 per cent scholarship to another 30 students of the first year. The course begins with teaching the English alphabet. The university has designed audio-visual classrooms with special software so that everything is fed in a visual content. "We wanted to do away with sign language. And experts in the field say that the students could be taught to follow lip movement. The visual content will only help them for a better understanding," Dr. Thangaraj said. The university officials are stunned by the urge to learn among these special students. "They are more sincere, hard-working and more focussed. Their average performance is better than normal students," Dr. Thangaraj said. Talking about their inquisitive attitude, the Director of SHIP, M. Venkatesulu, said that they would never allow the teacher to proceed with the next step until every student in the classroom understood it. "They just walk up to the board and insist on clearing all their doubts," said the Mathematics teacher, A. Akila. Counsellors appointed by the university take care of these special students in all their initial hiccups. "They know that this is a God-send opportunity and want to come up in life like any other normal person," said C. Usha, an expert in teaching special children. The syllabus has been designed with a lot of flexibility to cater to students of varied academic talent. "A student can score 19 - 27 credits in a semester. For the slow learners, we have got summer camps wherein they can make up for their shortcomings," Dr. Thangaraj said. The programme has been designed to make the students become eligible for a diploma certificate on completion of the fourth year. After the first two years, the students would be integrated with the normal students in the classrooms and hostel. "We do not want to keep them in isolation. By the end of second year, they will be able to read the lip movement and learn as any normal student," Dr. Venkatesulu said. Besides students, the university has received ample support from parents too. "The selection of students for scholarship is based purely on merit-cum-means. In many cases, the parents of meritorious students are so generous that they willingly declined the scholarship benefits for their wards to enable other poor students to make use of the opportunity," Dr. Thangaraj said. The university will soon introduce B. Ed. Programme for the hearing and speech impaired. Details can be obtained from the Director (SHIP): 098401-68559. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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
