News

Volume 5 Issue 4 - February 15, 2007

Government announces 22 schools for disabled children in Delhi

D.N.I.S. News Network – Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chowdhury has announced that 22 schools devoted to ‘special’ children will soon come up in the Capital. And as a step to equip these schools, teachers from government schools have been trained and teachers from aided and private schools will be trained.

Chowdhury said that she has written to the Delhi Government to make it mandatory for all Government schools in the Capital to have diagnostic centres to detect ‘special’ children, slow learners and dyslexic children. In this connection, she has roped in N.G.O.s to create intervention centres and an online helpline for the concerned parents and teachers. “For ‘special children’, early intervention, in the age group of 0-6, is crucial. Owing to its small size and its status as Capital, I want to make Delhi a ‘model’ state, the first of its kind, which will have a comprehensive understanding of the needs of ‘special’ children. I have written to the Government to make physical and mental checkup of each child mandatory to detect their needs. This will be followed by the intervention programme,” the Minister stated.

In association with S.C.E.R.T., Action for Ability Development and Inclusion (A.A.D.I.) and Educational Consultants India Limited, the Delhi Government has trained 2,700 teachers for Delhi Government, M.C.D., N.D.M.C. and Cantonment school. Teachers from aided and private schools will be trained next. The idea is to equip every school to aid and detect children with ‘special needs’ she said, adding further that the 22 “dedicated” schools will have all the things that the journey after detection will require including the provision of options that do not exist in other schools.