The need for an education system that fits the needs of differently abled children was stressed at a ‘National consultative workshop on inclusive education of differently abled children’ that got under way here on Wednesday.
The three-day workshop, organised by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), asserted that inclusive education was a child’s right.
ADPI Jimmy Joseph in his introductory remarks said teachers were increasingly facing challenges in how to effectively transform the curriculum to suit the requirements of children with difficulties that ranged from mild to severe. Along with inclusive education, there needed to be spaces that could enable exclusive focus on the requirements of these children.
G. Harikumar, Commissioner, State Commissionerate for Persons with Disabilities, said the dropout rate among such children was less in the State. However, owing to lack of resource teachers, they were not getting the required attention. Against this backdrop, he had suggested to the government that some parents of such children be trained and deployed as co-teachers in schools and be given remuneration too.
In the first session on current status of inclusive education, Roshni Ravindran, research officer at the SCERT, spoke on restructuring of practices, culture, and quality of education so that it could respond to diverse needs of differently abled students. She called for developing a model for an inclusive school, a flexible and appropriate curriculum for such children, and improving teacher training for capacity building.
Kerala Social Security Mission Executive Director Mohammed Asheel called for early detection and intervention for prevention or better management of disabilities. Screening for newborns in hospitals was a step in this direction. The aim was to reduce such disabilities by 20% in the next five years. He also mooted special anganwadis where intellectually challenged children would be taught with other children by special teachers.
Need-based approach
Jose Kunjhu who represented Moideen Kutty K., Managing Director of the Kerala State Handicapped Persons Welfare Corporation, called for a need-based approach to the differently abled. Schools, he said, should be barrier-free to cater to the needs of differently abled children.
Identification as differently abled contained the danger of children being labelled or branded and being kept apart, Baby Shari, professor of Psychology at the University of Calicut, warned.
Amrida G.S., State Programme Coordinator, Kudumbashree, talked about interventions made through Kudumbashree’s Buds schools and Buds rehabilitation centres in development and education of mentally challenged children. SCERT Director J. Prasad also said the workshop was aimed at developing a concept paper on how to achieve inclisiveness in educatiom. The conclusions of the workshop would be consolidated, and another workshop help for prepare a concept paper.
Lack of adequate resource teachers and integration of special and other schoolsalso came up for discussion.