A special college to teach the B. Ed. course free of charge to those with visual and orthopaedic impairments has begun in Chennai. Students will be admitted from the academic year 2015-16.
The Netrodaya College of Special Education has received affiliation and green signal from the Tamil Nadu Teachers Training University and the Rehabilitation Council of India, which provides clearances with training programmes for the disabled in the country.
The college will be a subsidiary unit of Nethrodaya, a voluntary organisation based in Nolumbur, which also runs a school for blind and visually impaired children. During the first year, 30 students will be admitted, said C. Govindakrishnan of Nethrodaya.
“The course is offered to visually-impaired and orthopaedically-challenged students. We chose these two categories because we are equipped to impart training to them and we also feel they will be able to complement each other,” Mr. Govindakrishnan said. “We will be prioritising visually-challenged girls and rural students as we find that they are the most disadvantaged when in comes to finding means to support themselves. If we train them to be eligible for a government job, that improves their prospects substantially,” he explained, jocularly adding that it might improve their marriage prospects too. Those who fit these categories of disability and have any bachelor’s degree with at least 50 percent marks will be eligible to apply.
There are an estimated 1.27 lake blind people in Tamil Nadu and about 70,000 of them live in the villages, as per available data. Of this, only over 500 people have cleared the Teacher’s Eligibility Test (TET), and between 80-90 per cent of them have been selected for appropriate positions across the state, Mr. Govindakrishnan added.
“We understand that most of these candidates may not be able to pay for their way here, so we are offering the course completely free, and we are throwing in free boarding and lodging for the selected candidates,” he said. The college will be located in Nolumbur where the school is being run.
