by
“The
Rite Centre”
Research in Integrated
Training & Education
OUR PHILOSOPHY AND GUIDING PRINCIPLE
ALL CHILDREN ARE SPECIAL
A child is first and foremost a child and the
ability, disability or giftedness, secondary.
v
2
YEAR INNOVATIVE COURSE
v
Highlights
(Oct. - Dec. 2009)
Celebrations are in Order!!
It
gives us immense pleasure to announce that our Trustee Roda Billimoria got married to Mr. Ratnakar Desai, her long
time friend, on 19th November 2009, at a quiet ceremony at her home. We wish
her lots of love, luck, laughter and happiness ever after!
·
“Education of Children with Special
Needs”, an optional
module was designed by our Foundation
for the dual mode TISS programme M.A. Education (Elementary). The contact sessions were held in Oct. - Nov. 2009,
which included visits to an Early Intervention Centre and a Remedial Clinic.
v Lectures/Workshops/Training Programmes
·
The
second year students were placed at Sanskardham School
for the Hearing Impaired, Goregaon & Shishuvan, Matunga for observation & practice teaching, while
the first year students were placed at Mobile
Creches, Agripada and G.A. Kulkarni
School, Khar. As part of the Diwali
celebrations, the first year students taught ‘Flower and Lantern making’ through a workshop. Their internship
concluded with a skit in Hindi titled ‘Ham Sab Ek Hai’.
·
The
students had a series of educational visits organised to the following
institutions :
-
Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for
the Hearing Handicapped
at Bandra.
-
Punarvas Special
School for the Mentally Retarded, Goregaon
-
Muktangan at the Lovegrove Municipal
School, Worli
-
School for Remedial Education, Haji Ali
-
Centre for Child Development, Haji Ali.
·
A
Christmas get-together was organised for the students and included screening of
the movie Forrest Gump.
v
RESEARCH
/ DOCUMENTATION
·
Ongoing:
-
Evaluation
of students on teacher attitude, values & opinion of the philosophy of integration , before &
after completion of the D.Ed (Integrated) course.
-
Preparing
questionnaires - school visits/classroom observations.
·
To undertake:
-
Attribution
of factors related to students’ participation in the D.Ed (Integrated) course.
-
Survey
for awareness of integrated education among schools of Mumbai.
-
Correlation
between Locus of Control (LOC), study habits and teacher effectiveness..
v
WEBSITES
OF INTEREST
·
www.reference.com : This is a free service including a
dictionary, a thesaurus and a translator for over fifty 50 languages. Other
sections such as word-of-the-day & word games are also useful. However it
might be desirable to view the site under adult supervision since there
are links to partner sites, some of
which may not always have content suitable
for children.
v PROFESSIONAL INTERACTIONS
Participated in various seminars/workshops/conferences.
·
Mrs.
Bhatia officiated as one of the judges for the “S.R.
Sethi ICSE
Interschool elocution competition
organised by Marble Arch School, Oshiwara.
She
also participated in the farewell function organised for the outgoing principal
of G. A.
Kulkarni School,
Khar, as well as a cultural programme with an exhibition and dance drama on
the Mahabharat, organised by Jasudben M.L. School,
Khar and Dr. Madhuri Shah Nursery &
K.G. School.
·
Rashida
and Rinkal attended a workshop on Learning Disabilities organised by Maharashtra Dyslexia Association & Tata
Interactive Forum for Learning Disabilities.
·
Rashida
& Usha attended a seminar - Global Campaign on Education for all Children
with Visual Impairment (EFA-VI) & Recent Development in RCI, organised by NAB &ICEVI.
v
HEROES
FOREVER
·
Jayant Mistry, a British-based 43 year old who was
physically challenged since birth, was always encouraged by his parents to
confront difficulties. He has more than overcome many ordeals and learnt to play wheelchair tennis, going
on to represent Britain in over 20 World Team Cups, (wheelchair tennis competitions equivalent to the Davis Cup) besides winning 20 singles
and 48 doubles, before retiring in 2007.
·
A 21 year old
with Athetoid Cerebral Palsy, Chennai-based Bhavna Botta has completed her
schooling in a regular school and
has joined a mainstream college to pursue commerce, which is probably something
that no other youngster with her condition has done in the entire country. When
she was 13 yrs, she started using a
communication system called eye-pointing (that involves the ability to think in
alphabets and point in numbers) and now uses it so rapidly that others struggle
to keep up with her !
·
Vishal Sarvaiya was 5 months old when a bout of meningitis left him totally hearing impaired
and consequently unable to speak either. However dance has become this Mumbai
youngster’s language of expression,
who has honed his skills of sight, touch & memory to compensate for not
being able to hear. He has been a part of Shiamak Davar’s dance troupe and is
now a dance co-instructor, teaching beginners and intermediate students. He
also dreams of becoming a top-notch dance instructor someday.
v
TAKING
STRIDES
·
Intel launched a gadget called the Intel Reader - a handheld device that
can assist people who have trouble reading standard print, whether it is due to
dyslexia or vision problems. It combines a high-resolution camera with a
processor that helps in conversion of printed text to digital text which is
then read aloud to the user.
·
The
Ability Foundation recently
organised the ‘AbilityFest 2009: India
International Disability Festival’ that showcased films on the
differently-abled. Dealing with a wide spectrum of disorders and disabilities
and associated issues such as social adjustments, it is hoped that the media
would play an important part both in spreading awareness and effecting a change
in attitudes.
·
An
Indian social enterprise Inclusive
Planet in collaboration with Centre
for Internet & Society, Bangalore
have launched an online social network and content-sharing platform called
Bookbole designed specifically for the visually impaired. It hopes to address
the problem of restricted access to
reading material for this user group and allows them a platform to directly
share their digital archives of notes, photos, books, magazines etc.
online.
v CONCERNS
·
Concerned
about the quality of education being offered, the Quality Council of India, a non-profit autonomous body set up in
1997 with the support of the Indian industry, has introduced an accreditation standard for government
schools based on various parameters. It is also planning to co-ordinate with
all State Governments to set up an accreditation body in each state.
·
The
State Cabinet in Maharashtra has modified the definition of primary education
extending it upto Std VII instead of the existing Std IV. This decision is also
expected to have an impact on financial issues such as grants from the
government, fees and teacher salaries.
·
The
HRD Ministry has asked all states to upgrade the eligibility criteria for teachers training to meet NCTE norms. This
includes a mandatory 2 year duration for D.Ed programmes with a minimum
eligibility of 12th Std pass. States which conduct a 1 year programme should
additionally offer bridge courses so that students can be awarded a recognised
diploma.
·
With
inexperienced children posting personal details on social networking sites,
experts feel that education on internet
behaviour is an urgent requirement. Many IB, ICSE and SSC schools are
responding to this concern by conducting courses with facts on the hazards of
making personal information publicly accessible online.
·
As
part of an evaluation to assess India’s
preparedness to meet the EFA target by 2015, the HRD Ministry has published a report of teacher attendance in various
states, which shows West Bengal has the
highest rate at 98.1 %. The lowest is Assam with 55.2 %. Most other
states seem to fall between the 70 % to 80 % range.
·
The
CBSE Board welcomed feedback via its
website while framing its new policies,
with all stakeholders in the education system including parents, teachers &
children, invited to participate. It is hoped that by building a consensus,
everybody will feel part of the change.
·
The
issue of the right age for a child to start schooling has been a much debated
one. However, according to some educationists, a play environment & nutrition for children upto the age of 5 - 6 years is a more ‘balanced diet’,
which is reflected in the State system of anganwadis and schooling. Ironically however, affluence appears to lead
to greater chances of putting a child through a competitive education system at
a younger age!
v
OVERHEARD
·
Most
CBSE schools offer a foreign language in the curriculum and Kendriya Vidyalayas, determined not to
be left behind, have decided to offer
German in some of their schools in Chennai. Subsequent to an MoU between
the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and the Goethe Institute, Max Mueller Bhavan
is currently training a batch of teachers in German, who are expected to clear
three basic levels to qualify them to teach Class VI upwards.
·
St. Xavier’s - Mumbai, a college which is acknowledged for
the quality education it provides and has the highest possible accreditation
from NAAC, is poised to become
autonomous from the following academic year, making it the first college in
the city to get autonomy. It is felt that
this would allow the college to initiate a host of new practices
including designing its own syllabus, as well as introducing a credit system
and modified assessment systems such as continuous evaluation.
·
The
Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University
plans to submit a proposal to the NCTE to offer a 4 year integrated B.Ed programme (B.A. B.Ed & B.Sc.B.Ed).
This programme expects to lay more emphasis on teaching methodology and
assessment, thus enhancing detailed understanding and reflection.
·
A
shop exclusively meant for the visually
impaired was inaugurated recently as
part of the seventh anniversary celebrations of Nethrodaya - a self-help
institution for persons with disabilities at Chennai. Some of the items on sale
include speaking watchers, calculators and specially designed chess boards.
·
The
Maharashtra State Board of Education plans to introduce a State Curriculum Framework along the lines of NCF 2005,
customised to the needs of Maharashtra and
covering all the classes from I to XII.
v OBITUARY
·
It
is difficult to believe that Dr. Thakur
Hari Prasad, who strode across the domain of disabilities like a colossus
is no more. The legacy of care, concern and commitment left by him for persons
with disabilities will be cherished by all who have been associated with him.
v FUTURE PLANS
·
We
are happy to inform all our readers that work has begun on our proposed Institute of Integrated Education at Navi Mumbai.
NEWSLETTER
The Rite Step
Sir
Shapurji Billimoria Foundation
Reg.
No. E-17693. No.
31 – January 2010
To,