Ray of hope for special kids

AHMEDABAD: Special children have special needs and somehow people of Ahmedabad have still not woken up to this. The realization of existence of special children, be it physically challenged, differently-abled or even dyslexic, has not struck many yet, only because it has never happened to anybody they care for. Parents of special children are forced to live with hostile, sorry and sometimes even amused stares at social gatherings, public places and traffic signals.
The Gujarat Council for Educational Research and Training, recently gave a ray of hope to these parents, by deciding to train school teachers of Gujarat in special techniques, to deal with dyslexic students. Some private schools have also started devising methods to integrate special students with their normal counterparts.
But, much needs to be done still — there are only six schools dedicated to special children in the city. "I have faced this predicament for many years now. My son studied in a school for special children, for 15 years. But, the quality of education deteriorated so sharply that I had to withdraw him from the school five years ago. With no teachers and the school land being eyed by corporates, there was hardly any value addition to my son's life," said Gaurang Jani, father of a special child and a renowned sociologist of the city.
Though quality of education and special care are concerns of parents, experts feel it is not just special care that these children need. They need to feel normal and play with other students. "Inclusion of the special children with the regular school children is a model that we recommend. Not only do special children need to learn to live with normal people, the vise versa is also necessary. Almost 20 per cent of the newly opened schools are extending their hands towards special children," says Dr Anwar Thamani, the occupational therapist at BM Institute of Mental Health.
"We have interacted with special children and parents from out side Gujarat too and it is a relief to know that parents here are more aware. Also, they being more social, the society is more acceptable of the whole situation. Here, parents have more resources and thus spend on the most expensive treatment for their child. But even then they need immense amount of counseling in the initial days," he says.
Schools like Ankur High School, Anand Niketan, Sharda Mandir and CN Vidylaya have shown interest in integrating the education for special and normal children. There is also Prerna, by the Calorex Foundation, which is the first school in the city for dyslexic students. "25 per cent of the school going children have this disorder. Though exceptionally brilliant in IQ, the child lacks in other faculties. Acknowledging this disorder, the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) has also given permission for a writer or half an hour extra for writing exams," says Pooja Manjula Shroff, the founder of Prerna. With around a 100 students today, the school also takes in students during middle term, only to let them return to regular schools after training them at Prerna.