The Samagra Shiksha, Kerala, has launched 1,500 special care centres to provide individual support to differently abled children studying in State schools.
The special care centres are set up in schools that have differently abled students and adequate space.
Samagra Shiksha, Kerala, had appointed special educators in schools to support teachers by providing adapted learning materials. However, the number of special educators – just 2,886 – is very low as compared to that of differently abled students.
The specialisation of special educators, deployment pattern of children to schools, and lack of suitable learning material are some of the other challenges. Not all the differently abled students attending school as part of inclusive education are able to participate in the learning process fully for health or treatment reasons or attain the learning outcomes that other children do.
The special care centres are aimed at providing such students individual support in addition to what they learn in the classroom.
Academic support
The centres provide academic support to all differently abled children in State schools in a panchayat. Not more than five children attend the special centres at a time. The centres usually function in the afternoon, but on Saturdays are open from the morning. Hence, children whom special educators are not able to reach out to during a week can attend the centres on Saturday.
Learning material suited to each category of disability is made available at these centres. Therapies that are provided through the 169 autism centres in the State are also being decentralised and made available through these care centres for better access and effectiveness. Children with the same category of disability are given the same time slots for providing additional support.
Parents of children receiving home-based education are given orientation at these centres how to become actively involved in their wards’ academic and skill development.
Samagra Shiksh hopes to attain the target of 2,000 special care centres. These centres are also expected to help bring to public attention the academic, infrastructural, and social requirements or problems of these children.
