The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Focus on inclusive education for mentally-challenged

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Friday, Jul 11, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Focus on inclusive education for mentally-challenged

Staff Reporter

5,043 mentally retarded children are being tutored under home-based services
900 resource teachers preparing them to participate in Special Olympics

Hyderabad: The need for careful planning of inclusive education was discussed at the inauguration on Wednesday of the three-day national seminar on ‘Inclusive Education for Children with Mental Retardation at Primary level’.

Inclusion literally means helping students participate fully in their daily life, in spite of having certain disabilities. The seminar is being organised by Swayamkrushi, an NGO working for special children.K. Rajagopal, former Vice-Chancellor of JNTU, who was the chief guest, underscored the dire need for planning of inclusive education for different stages of retardation. “Educators should be able to handle children according to different levels of retardation,” he said.

Delivering the keynote address, Neerja Shukla, Head, NCERT, said that there had been changes in role of special schools and special educators which now required retuning the policies of teacher education and curriculum in regular and special education.

Throwing light on special educators, State Project Director of Rajiv Vidya Mission, Mohammed Ali Rafath, said that 5,043 mentally retarded children were being tutored under home-based services through special educators and 900 resource teachers are all set to prepare mentally challenged children to participate in the next Special Olympics that will be held later during this year.

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