Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Not enough trained teachers at special schools

CHENNAI: Special schools in Chennai are regularly in search of dedicated, trained teachers. Though mainstreaming children with disability has become the watchword, professionals working with such children point out that it is not enough to mainstream children if there is no way to ensure that they can lead productive lives as adults.

“Every school has a complaint that there are not enough special educators. The government must come forward with training programmes. We need to integrate children with autism in society, not just in mainstream schools,” says Radha Ganesan, founder-director of Swabodhini, a school for special children with developmental delay.

We have to learn from other countries about making them skilled, employable adults. You need to teach them what they need to be part of society not what you think they need,” she adds.

Parvathy Viswanathan, founder-director of Aikya, a school that works with children with mental disabilities, says the pay is better in government-run programmes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or ‘Vazhndhu Kattuvom’ but the teachers’ talent is wasted in documentation.

“The student-teacher ratio should be 1:8 but we do not get many youngsters as the pay is not attractive. At present, we are managing with therapists. Also, we need more training centres. We have only 1,500 special teachers while we need at least 3,500 teachers,” she says.

Not all special teachers employed in government schools for the SSA programme are trained, says P. Murali of Thiramai, a collective of persons with disabilities in coastal and interior villages.

The schools are not accessible as infrastructure such as ramps, railings, wheelchairs and toilets are lacking. The materials used for activity-based learning and active learning methodology programmes are not user-friendly for special children, Mr. Murali points out.

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