| The Sir Shapurji Billimoria Foundation was established and registered in 1998 under the Public Charities Act (Bombay), No. E-17693, primarily to promote integrated education. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Since its inception, it has attempted: |
| to address the needs of children of differing capacities and |
| to redesign teacher education in order to enable teachers to enhance the optimal development of these children |
| Hence it has established the RITE Centre - Research in Integrated Training and Education as well as TEC - Teacher Education Centre. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Its guiding principle rests on the belief that A CHILD IS FIRST AND FOREMOST A CHILD AND THE ABILITY, DISABILITY OR GIFTEDNESS, IS SECONDARY. | |||
| It also recognizes that while ALL CHILDREN ARE SPECIAL, there may be differences and variations in their: |
| capacities and talents |
| pace of learning |
| extent and limits to learning and |
| inputs to learning | |||
| And as these differences need to be incorporated in the planning of schools and in the professional development of teachers (training courses), the Foundation has undertaken the following: |
| conducted short term (in-service) teachers training courses through weekend modules and vacation courses | |||
| organized workshops, discussion groups and orientation programmes for schools and training colleges locally as well as out- station | |||
| designed an innovative 2 year (pre-service) Diploma course in integrated education (commenced from June 2003) | |||
| documented the proceedings of the courses (6 volumes) as training manuals | |||
undertaken research in “learning styles” and “attitudes to integration” and
| networked with various educational organizations through annual seminars, newsletters, website and other educationally related activities.
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