Everyone know that there is a severe shortage of schools and education for children with special needs. Focusing on the issue, Change Agents for School Education and Research (CASER), a broad platform working towards quality education, hosted educators, experts, doctors, teachers, researchers and NGOs working in the field of inclusive education, along with officials from the state department of school education for a day-long round table conference on, 'Transforming inclusive education through innovations' on Thursday.
The event was co-organised by the Observer Research Foundation, Sol's Arc and Atma, and was attended by around 100 people.
The first session, moderated by psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty, focused on the importance of inclusive education and the role that the society and government should play.
During the discussion, the mother of an autistic 16-year-old narrated how she had to take her son to the hospital for a battery of tests. She had to visit the hospital close to 17 times, not to mention long waiting periods in between, for a disability certificate that came with an expiry date and did not serve the final purpose of him being able to sit for his examinations.
Shastri Srinivas, under-secretary of the department, said, "We have to think about all the 74,000 plus special kids. Solutions should consider their feasibility and macro-impact."
Nisha Grover, president, National Convention of Educators of the Deaf, emphasised how a child's fundamental right to education is being compromised between the human resource development and the social justice and welfare ministries. "We need to move from rehabilitation and welfare to inclusion and empowerment," she said.
Sudheendra Kulkarni, ORF chairman, encouraged the forum to concretise the recommendations and lobby the government to bring about change, both at the Centre and at the state.
During the meeting, participants agreed that the term 'learning disabilities' needs to be defined better, and one also needs to remove the term 'mental retardation' from everyone's vocabulary. Pedaogies and curriculum for special children were also discussed.
Another follow-up meeting is to been organised on December 5 between the government, special educators and organisations, where specifics will be formulated on how they can work together.
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