IT to help differently abled students

Children can learn using visual images and video files

The Corporation School for the Deaf here is all set to become a ‘model school’ for rest of the State with a non-profit organisation, which works across India in the education field, preparing to ramp up the use of information technology in teaching.

While it is already providing e-content in Tamil to Corporation Schools, the American Indian Foundation (AIF) is contemplating providing tablets to this school to help the differently abled children learn using visual images and video files.

Speaking to

The Hindu on Wednesday over phone from New Delhi, the foundation’s national director J. Sundarakrishnan said that as the school had a total strength of only 42 from Standards I to X, it was possible to experiment novel methods in the teaching process on a pilot basis. This could be replicated across the State at a later stage.

“We are focussing on ‘empowering teachers’ through technology and ‘enabling the environment’ by which an output and outcome-based approach was used. The students work on projects regularly using technology so that the progress they make is visible and could be assessed,” he added.

MoU

This project was part of ‘Digital Equaliser’ (DE) Programme - for which the Coimbatore Corporation had inked a three-year MoU (2012-15) with the foundation.

It covers all the 10 high schools, 16 higher secondary schools and the one special school run by the civic body.

School officials said that it was granted high school status in 2002 with students regularly appearing for Standard X board examinations in Tamil medium. But for the exclusion of English, it followed the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) System being followed by other schools.

Further, vocational training was also being given to students with the assistance of Round Table 21, enabling the school to arrange for placement.

While the school achieved cent per cent pass in public examination a few years back followed by 67 per cent and 84 per cent in the subsequent years, the officials said that they were planning to secure centum results again this year.

Six students of this school were pursuing an engineering degree through Speech and Hearing Impaired Programme (SHIP), a six-year integrated B.Tech course for students who complete Standard X, being offered by Kalasalingam University in Srivilliputtur, Virudhunagar district.