With the Right to Education Act mandating inclusive classrooms, and thrust on mainstreaming children with special needs, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) will train teachers to adapt the curriculum to integrate special children in regular schools.
Of the 1,36,267 children with special needs, covered by SSA in Tamil Nadu, 1,22,733 study in regular schools. A total of 7,379 are part of the school-readiness programme and 6,155 students receive home-based education.
Pooja Kulkarni, State project director, SSA, said they have involved experts working with children with Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, specific learning disabilities, and visual and hearing impairment, among others, to prepare the inclusive module.
“We are training teachers on curriculum adaptation for the first time. Earlier, focus was on equipping them to handle children with special needs,” she said. Curriculum adaptation training will span subjects and disabilities.
One of the resource persons, Jaya Krishnaswamy, director of Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children, said as per the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the child has the right to learn at its own pace.
“The training covers how lesson plans can be adapted and support can be given by the special educator to the teacher. The child should be assessed in what it has learnt as against the entire curriculum,” she said.
Jeeva Azhakannan, senior manager–community services, The Spastics Society of Tamil Nadu, said children with cerebral palsy will have good cognition, but might need physical adaptations.
“The teacher should be equipped to integrate them in a class of 40,” she said.
Two SSA special educators from each district were trained in November and training is expected to be given to around 20,500 regular teachers handling inclusive classrooms, by this academic year.
“The State-level training with teachers from each district will be held next week. They will act as resource persons at the district and cluster level,” an official said.
