Dear Vinod:
Your son can most definitely continue his education outside India as early as
class 11 or even sooner. Canada and the US are the best destinations since they
provide the finest facilities to visually impaired students in the world. Since
he is not eligible to enroll at a government school in both countries known as
public schools, you should perhaps consider admitting him to a private academy
also known as a prep school. There are more than one hundred schools for the
visually impaired in the US and Canada. Sadly, admission is restricted to US
citizens and permanent residents only unless the school has a special program
for international students in which case fees have to be paid. It is usually
preferable if a visually impaired child is mainstreamed right from the start at
an institution of education that provides a full spectrum of special support
services.
Sessions usually commence in August each year and end in either late May or
early June the following year. While not all prep schools have visually
impaired students on their rolls owing to the high cost of private school
education in the US or Canada even by local standards, some do and you might
want to pick a school that already has a few visually impaired children
studying there. This will ensure that all the required support services such as
readers, screen reader training, Braille, special sports and mobility are
already in place.
The other advantage of studying in a prep school is that most prep schools have
hostel facilities. This is not the case with public schools and students need
to commute daily to school. Many public schools in the US and Canada have
international student exchange programs where students live with a family for
one or two years called host families and ride the school bus to school.
However, statistics on the acceptance of visually impaired students in such
programs are dismal. Moreover, this arrangement tends to pose several
logistical challenges for the visually impaired child. In order to qualify,
your son may also have to take an American test conducted by the College Board
called the P-SAT.
You might also want to consider waiting for a few years and sending your son to
North America for an undergraduate college degree. This might be a better
option since all American and Canadian universities and colleges are legally
obligated to provide special services to visually impaired students thanks to a
law enacted in the seventies called Section 504 and its Canadian variation.
Additionally college education in the US can be considerably less expensive
than prep school education costs given the fact that there are many excellent
universities in the US that charge only$6000 - $7000 per year as annual tuition
with further deductions in fees due to scholarships. Work visa rules for
students have also been liberalized in the recent past in both countries for
international college students. Three year work visas are now being
automatically granted to eligible college students. All else being equal, the
US Embassy and the Canadian High Commission in India are not known to create
any barriers when the time arrives to issue student visas to visually impaired
applicants.
Please write to me off list if you need more information.
Rajesh from Noida
Overseas Education Consultant
----- Original Message -----
From: Vinod bhat via Ai
To: ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in
Cc: Vinod bhat
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2017 10:40 PM
Subject: [Ai] Higher Education options for VI outside India
Hi all,
This is Vinod, I have son who is VI and is currently in class 8th, I was trying
to explore options of higher education(after 10th or 12th) outside India for
him, can someone help/guide.
Regards,
Vinod bhat
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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..
To check if the post reached the list or to search for old posting, reach:
https://www.mail-archive.com/ai@accessindia.inclusivehabitat.in/maillist.html
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