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For that extra dose of care

Photo:G. Moorthy

CONDUCIVE Environment that suits children with learning disabilities

Two months after enrolling her son in a matriculation school, Kalaiselvi (name changed), a doctor by profession, was asked by the management to pull out her son from the school.

“They said our child was restless in the class and quite often turned hysterical. He suffers from mild autism, which needed special attention,” she recalls. Despite her frantic attempts to explain his situation, his son was sent out of five schools in one year, for “being defiant when asked to answer questions.”

“His is not a case of mental retardation. He just lacked normal IQ. He needed an environment where he gets to move with normal children. But not many mainstream schools were ready to enrol him.”

A nightmare

Her case is not an isolated one. Though she managed to find a school, Sri Sivananda Balalaya, that took her son in, mainstreaming children with special needs have always been a nightmare for parents.

While special schools for children with autism, Down’s Syndrome or learning disabilities are mushrooming, still not many mainstream schools dare to blot their record in public examinations by enrolling children with learning disorders. Many parents even fail to identify learning disorders among their children.

“Schools can identify these children at primary level itself. But they prefer not to. Alarm bells ring only when the students enter the threshold of public examination. They would be forced to drop out in class IX,” says the Correspondent of Sri Sivananda Balalaya K. G. Meenakshi.

Inclusive education

Her school has been one among the few to take up inclusive education with all vitality. Five years after the Disability Act 1995 and the Comprehensive Plan of Action for Inclusive Education of Children and Youth with Disability was tabled, she enrolled the first child with learning disability in 2000. Now with 60 such children, the school has 4:1 student-teacher ratio for the children with special needs.

“Many think our school is a special school. Awareness among people is so low that they fail to understand inclusive education,” she says.

Very few schools are opening up to the idea of inclusive education. It needs training a few teachers as special educators, says the Executive Director of the Holy Cross Service Society S. Prabhakar Immanuel.

While some children would have fairly good IQ, they fall short in organising their thoughts while writing examinations. Some children suffer neurological or sensory problems that make it difficult for them to take up written examinations. Both parents and teachers are to be blamed. Parents pressure their children to write at a very young age, when the kids’ brain may not be fully ready for structured writing.

“Teachers worsen the situation by thrusting them with more writing work. Neurologically, the nerves get further weakened and psychologically, the students develop a negative attitude towards writing,” Mr. Prabhakar says. Schools must learn to identify the children with special needs at the kindergarten level.

Disorders like dyslexia (problem with language) or dyscalculia (problem with maths), if identified early, could witness a speedy development. While most children know the basic mathematical calculation, they fail to comprehend the riders given in English.

“Language becomes a major barrier. Students must be taught to interpret concepts in different ways. Inclusive education will pave way for academic help from their peers,” he suggests. But will the peers be sensitive to their classmates’ special needs? “They do. That’s the best thing about inclusive education,” comes the emphatic reply from Ms. Meenakshi. The school children assist their classmates with special needs in academics and physical education. “We don’t conduct classes advising them to be courteous with these children. They learn by themselves,” she says.

“The inclusive environment has done wonders to my son,” Dr. Kalaiselvi chips in. When her son was shifted to a separate building for individual care, he turned extremely restless. “He returned to normalcy only when the teachers brought him back to his class. He turns defiant if he is secluded.”

Few other City schools have also realised the growing need for inclusive education. St. John’s Vestry Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School has recently sent its staff for a month-long workshop on learning disability.

“She is training other staff members. We have identified quite a number of children after that. When we sent word for parents, some understand and some get offended. It is quite challenging. But we are beginning to help the slow learners,” says the Principal of the school Relton M. James.

It might have taken a long time coming. But with more schools beginning to look beyond the high-scoring heads, inclusive education would no longer be a distant dream, academicians hope.

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