Hi,
I do not think that we will lose anything if special schools become
extinct, read on for why I think so.
Be informed that I am reside in Mumbai, and my situation may vary from
those in West Bengal.
I am personally studying in an inclusive educational system, grade 7,
and instead of conversion of study material in Braille, I would prefer
it to be converted into accessible e-formats, such as DAISY or as
plain Word documents, because of the following reasons:
Braille is after all a language only for the blind, sighted people
cannot review Braille work, and personally, I would encourage visually
impaired students to gain knowledge of a word processor, rather than
keep learning different sorts of Braille contractions.
Today, the scenario is that laptops are cheaper than Braillers, and
you cannot add the cost of a screen reader, since you do have the free
screen reader NVDA, and by means you can get JAWS (though that
shouldn't be discussed here).
In my case, I don't think my teachers have to do any extra work for
me, only my mother converts my study material into a Word file, and
the rest of the work is done by me, that can be done by any other
visually impaired student, please clarify why do you think visually
impaired students need more attention?
In terms of infrastructure not being accessible in mainstream schools,
what is inaccessible? I am not being sarcastic or any such thing, just
trying to ask, politely. In my case, any sighted friend near me at
that particular instance puts my hand on his shoulder and off we go,
nothing great about that either, a very simple and practical solution
for moving around in my school.
When we are talking about special educators, they have a one time
duty, they give the student adequate computer training and other
necessary training, and 90% of their job is done. If I have any
questions/problems (which I did used to have when I had just become
completely blind), I simply go to the special educator (in my case,
Ms. Calveena Dselva in Xavier Resource Centre For the Visually
Challenged) and get my doubts clarified. I don't see why special
educators need to meet the student regularly.
I do not know of which scheme you are talking about, so I won't be
able to comment on that. By the way, if you could share some
information about it, it would be interesting.
'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.'
I am thirteen, and matured enough to comment on this statement as
well. So, isolation in my case, certainly no, I have done trekking
along with my sighted classmates, I go to school excursions, have gone
for overnight stays, and doen everything that sighted children would
do, again, nothing great about that, I have only done what was
possible, and I am old enough to know what is sympathy and what is
friendship, those of my sighted classmates who know me enough (80% do)
treat me equally, though I do admit that the remaining 20% with whom I
haven't spen much time, treat me a bit differently, I am matured
enough to ignore that, because I hardly ever interact with that 20%.
With respect to learning mathematics, Ms. Rebecca Carvalho has joined
XRCVC, and is in charge of maths and Science Access. I was equal in
terms of maths with my friends even before she joined, but the
difference is that before she joined I used to do my Maths mentally,
and now I write it in Word. Maths is probably my favourite subject,
and I do participate in competitive examinations involving mathematics
and have got quite distinguished ranks in them. I am not boasting
about myself, simply stating what is possible, from my example. I
study all other subjects, and will do them till the end of my
schooling.
'1. There should be some financial incentive for the parents who send
their children to special schools'
Why so? What extra do parents of blind children pay for, apart from a
laptop (which would have to be otherwise substituted by a more
expensive Brailler)?
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.'
Why so? What are the drawbacks of inclusive education?
Rajesh Sir,
In the name of bein realistic you are not trying to think of what
could be possible, and what things are already possible. I can't
comment on special education up to the primary level, because though I
do know of blind children studying happily in lower standards, I
personally was fairly sighted when I studied in my lower standards.
On 10/30/14, Asudani, Rajesh <[email protected]> wrote:
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:[email protected]] On
Behalf
Of Amiyo Biswas
Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2014 2:10 PM
To: [email protected]
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
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