Dear Bhavya,
I am a student from a "special school". I have also been a student in
a regular "not normal" school but I personally feel that education is
important to begin with and then the philosophical debate of "special"
versus "inclusive" for both have their advantages and disadvantages.
In a case as yours, at least you have parents who have computer at
home. How many blind people or their parents in the country have it?
What about regional languages? And yes, the biggest asset that you
have is your mother who is painstakingly doing the conversion etc.
I am not advocating special school but I am of the opinion that a
child must be educated in the best scenario that helps him. I have
been to the villages where both parents have to go to NREGS work and
the child goes to a regular school with little or no attention. This
certainly hampers his education and the learning outcomes will
definitely suffer. In the best available circumstances, children must
be in an inclusive environment but e-text can never replace Braille
till we have mobile sets that are easily accessible, fast to operate
and can maintain privacy (which present sets do not allow I am
afraid), and yes, Braille is not a language but a script.
Having said all this, I really admire your courage and wisdom at your
age and for this I would certainly salute your parents. Their
perseverance is what led you where you are. I am sure you will go
miles in the future. Wish you best of luck, lad and may you climb
heights unthinkable.
With best wishes,
Ketan
On 10/30/14, Amiyo Biswas <[email protected]> wrote:
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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--
Ketan Kothari
Phone: [r] 24223281,
Cell: 9987550614
MSN ID: [email protected]
Skype ID: Ketan3333
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