These teachers enable differently-abled children and help them find a place under the sun. Passionate about the work they do, these teachers, all working in the city and its suburbs, talk about the challenges of their profession and what it means to empower their students. They are indeed a class apart.
ADVERTISEMENT
PREETHA AYYAPPAN
Teacher at Travancore National School, Maruthankuzhy
My students may not be toppers in examinations but each milestone they achieve is a reason to celebrate. Every day is a challenge and every little step they take on the road to self-sufficiency motivates me. I teach English, science and maths. It is mostly one-to-one teaching and I have to repeat several times what is being taught to help them grasp the intricacies of language and maths. Many of my students are dyslexic. Patience and perseverance are mandatory while teaching my students. Many of them are intelligent. Reading and writing baffle them. That is where we help them with flash cards and innovative teaching methods.
ADVERTISEMENT
I have always enjoyed teaching. After my husband’s sudden demise, I wanted to do something and that is when a friend told me to help her at her school for special children. I started working as a volunteer and found the experience fulfiling. Then I enrolled for a course conducted by the Madras Dyslexic Association to teach children with learning challenges. I have been teaching for six years. One of my students will be writing the Boards this year!
G. THULASEEDHARAN
Headmaster, Government School for Visually Impaired, Vazhuthacaud
My experiences inspired me to become a teacher. An accident took away my vision and I had to find strength and motivation from within. Coming from a family with financial difficulties, it was a struggle to complete my schooling, graduation, post-graduation, LLB and then B Ed. But I never gave up and it is that confidence that I want to instil in my students. The challenge is to make my students self-reliant. Since most of these children lead sheltered lives, they have to be taught to be independent. They don’t have mobility and daily living skills. So, we start with a readiness programme. Developing their tactile skills is the core aspect. Thanks to technology, computers and Internet are accessible to them. When I was a student, there were just Braille texts. But these children are exposed to talking computers, audio texts and audio libraries through which they can ‘read’ books. Talented children are encouraged to learn music; a sports teacher gives them mobility training and a tutor teaches them karate. I am proud that many students of mine are now well placed in banks, schools, colleges and other institutions.
SUSAN JACOB
Resource teacher for the Hearing Impaired, Government Women’s Polytechnic for Women, Kaimanam
But for my husband Sam John, I would not have taken up this profession. He has been teaching hearing impaired children for many years now.
Though I was a pharmacist, I left the job and did my B.Ed and post graduation in computer science. When there was a vacancy for the post of Chemistry teacher at Government Higher Secondary School for the Deaf and Dumb at Jagathy my husband, who taught there, encouraged me to apply.
He gave me lessons in sign language and my students taught me the rest. Later, I attended the Indian Sign Language course at the National Institute for the Speech and Hearing Impaired.
When this Polytechnic announced the launch of its special batch for Hearing Impaired in the Computer Engineering stream in 2012, I didn’t think twice. Here I am the resource teacher for the final year students. My job is to interpret each and everything they are taught. It wasn’t easy in the beginning because I myself was learning many things for the first time. My students need guidance all the time and the entire college give that special attention to them, be it on the campus or the hostel. I am so proud that the first batch of the course has passed out and a few of them have already got apprenticeship placements.
I am very happy that I chose this profession. After all these years, like my students, I have also learnt to understand things by seeing rather than listening.
BEENA A.R.
Teacher, Rotary Institute for Children in Need of Special Care
I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and even as a young girl I was keen on social service activities. That’s why, when the opportunity arose, soon after I completed my undergraduate degree in Hindi, I jumped at the chance to be a guest teacher at this school for mentally challenged children between four and 18, divided into pre-primary, primary, secondary, pre-vocational and vocational sections, depending on the level of their ability. Teaching the mentally challenged is a tough job; one that requires a lot of patience, dedication, fortitude, commitment and above all a positive frame of mind. I loved it so much that I stayed on. Later I completed my diploma in special education mental retardation and a B.Ed in special education.
Now, it’s been 24 years. I don’t think of it as a job, rather it’s a service I am doing for these youngsters. It’s my students themselves who keep me going, despite the many challenges we face together. Every day at school is a struggle because it’s not a straightforward class as one would expect with regular subjects and normal kids. Here, we’re trying to impart life skills and basic reading, writing and arithmetic to children who find it difficult to comprehend what you are saying fully because of their disability.
We teach them to express their needs and eventually stand on their own two feet. More often than not it takes a minimum of three years for a child to progress from one section to the next. But each step they take forward, each sentence they utter to a better life for themselves is immensely rewarding for us teachers.
NIRMALA SURESH
Head teacher, Institute for Communicative and Cognitive Neurosciences (ICCONS)
In our institution, there are students between the ages of three and 34. Most of them are special children with different levels of abilities. Depending on their skills, we teach them. Early intervention has made it possible for many children to be integrated into mainstream schools. But older students who did not have that access to intervention have to be taught from scratch.
ICCONS started off as a behavioural neurology clinic at the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology in Thiruvananthapuram in 1998, thanks to the initiative taken by Dr. P.A. Suresh. It has evolved and now we have our own space at Pulayanarkotta. Instead of classes one, two and three, we have pre-basic, basic one, basic two and post-basic. After they complete post-basic, we teach them different kinds of vocational skills to help them earn a living.
The effort is to help the children gain some kind of self-sufficiency. Over the years, ICCONS caters to children with various kinds of autism. We teach children with all kinds of learning disabilities and mentally challenged children too.
Our students have been employed in different places and some of them have been integrated into mainstream government schools.
Teaching was a passion and since my postgraduate days, when I specialised in children with special needs, I have always wanted to teach. Then I wanted to teach visually challenged children. But circumstances prevented me then. After many years, it was a talk I attended that made me become part of a project for children with autism. One thing led to the other and I have been teaching here for 19 years now.
One of my former students, Nived, is an undergrad student while one or two have gone in for inclusive education.
The job is challenging and needs mental and physical stamina but at the end of the day, I know my work has made a difference to the lives of these students and their parents.