The Madonna Special Institute for the Deaf is in a celebratory mood, and the immediate cause for these celebrations is that a few of its old students have joined engineering courses and are doing well enough. They have inspired the bright students of the institute to nurture lofty goals and high ambitions, even as their teachers provide them confidence towards that achievement.
Farooq Basha, B.Y. Bharath Raju and Razia Sultana are among the students who joined engineering in the last two years after doing extremely well in Intermediate at the institute. Their names are familiar and popular in the institute now, as the present students seek to follow their footsteps.
Principal Elizabeth Rani says that it is a new beginning with more students showing interest in computer science-related engineering courses and their performance is quite satisfactory. She refers to the success story of Bharath Raju, who has joined engineering in Tamil Nadu with support from father. Many more bright students want to study engineering courses, but their parents’ financial conditions do not permit, she says.
Vocational skills
Set up in 1985 with barely 16 students, the institute at Carmel Road on Gunadala-Nunna Road is celebrating silver jubilee this year with the overall strength of students having risen to 510, who are studying from nursery to graduation.
Run by the Fransican Sisters, the institute has the distinction of having its old students finding jobs in government and private sectors.
“Our students are also working in the State secretariat. Some are working in banks and railways. They are usually employed at clerical level. Their disability disallows them to be employed in managerial cadres,” says Sister Rani. Besides equipping the students with the British version of sign language skills, the institute provides training to its students in all-round activities and vocational skills. Skills in type-writing, computers, off-set printing, screen printing, DTP, diploma in computer applications, chalk making, surf and phenyl making are the other trades the students are trained in, she explains.
