AGRA CONVENTION 2014
Blind Stars Beyond Facebook Bridging The Gap
7th to 9th November, 2014
Session 5
School education for visually impaired: Rural and urban realities in Indian context:
The point of view of a visually impaired person regarding ‘inclusive Education’ was put forward. Is the government really doing enough for different sections of the society in the name of Inclusive Education?
- The government spends just about 3% of the country’s GDP on education. The Kothari Commission, in 1966, recommended the model of inclusive education i.e. the same education system for all sections of the society. But, it has never been implemented. In fact, even in government run schools, the stratification is very visible according to the economic and social standing of the different sections. So, is the much talked about concept of Inclusive Education a reality?
- The special schools for children with visual impairment though provide satisfactory education, but do they help in shaping the children in such a way that they could assimilate within the society as adults?
- Again, the concept of ‘mainstreaming’ entails denoting a group as ‘main’. Who decides which group is the ‘main’ group? Isn’t the concept of special schools just making the job of mainstreaming of visually impaired children even difficult? It also makes the task of sensitization even more complicated.
- One interesting suggestion given by a blind parent of a sighted child was that there are no discourses on ‘Parents with special needs’ i.e. the struggles faced by blind parents with sighted children.
School education for visually impaired: Rural and urban realities in Indian context: Agra Convention 2014 – Blind Stars Beyond Facebook Bridging The GAP
Read the full report – Agra Convention 2014 – Report – HTML with Audio/Video
