“While I feel that teaching is the most viable career option for us, I also love English and am looking forward to teaching the subject to schoolchildren,” says K. Ramathilakam , a young visually challenged girl when asked about her interest in life.
She was one among the 120 candidates who were attending the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) coaching organised for visually challenged aspirants by the Government Education Department and the State Council for Teacher Education, Chennai, at Sethupathi Higher Secondary School here on Saturday.
Speaking about the coaching classes, Fatima Thilakarani, Principal, District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), T. Kallupatti, said that this was the first time coaching classes for the TET had been organised for visually challenged aspirants.
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“Candidates from Madurai and a few surrounding districts will undergo 40-day free coaching to tackle the TET with help of lecturers from DIET as well as Post Graduate teachers from schools in the city,” she said. ‘
Arockia Nirmala, a trainer from DIET, said that there would be classes on different subjects. “There will be sessions in English, Tamil, psychology and social studies. The response has been good and the candidates have been enthusiastic”, she stated.
Most of the candidates said that the coaching boosted their preparations for the examination. “We take time to go through study materials and these classes are very useful since we have an opportunity to listen and cover many areas in a short time,” said G. Mari, a candidate from Madurai.
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They, however, said that more study material was needed in Braille.
“While some study material is available in a format we can use, there needs to be more books in Braille. There are so many guides and handbooks which aid in TET preparation nowadays and we will find it useful if these are made available in a format which we can use,” explained R. Nithya, another candidate.