Structural Changes in Govt. Schools with NGOs on Board to ensure disabled children actually learn

Dear colleagues,

Please refer to my earlier post titled 'Delhi Govt. focuses on students with disabilities in Govt. Schools- thanks to Working Groups with NGOs'. Here is an updated report on the project by Shreya Roy Chowdhury of TNN, wherein the 6 working groups have moved ahead on many areas and the Delhi Govt. is hoping that through these interventions, the children with disabilities enrolled in govt. schools will actually learn:

6 new working groups for kids with spl needs (Times of India)

Shreya Roy Chowdhury | TNN | Updated: Sep 22, 2016, 12.04 AM IST

New Delhi: Through a number of interventions, Delhi government is hoping to ensure that disabled children in its schools actually learn. Taking disability-sector NGOs on board, the Directorate of Education has established six working groups to address different aspects of education for such kids—teacher training, aids and resources, even "structural changes" in the administration. "Disability mapping" is on the cards and on September 15, the government issued a list of 14 schools in different school districts where accessible "resource centres" will be built.

There are about 20,000 'children with special needs' or CWSN in Delhi government schools. The Right to Education Act's insistence on inclusivity and accessibility has increased enrollment but activists argue the system is not up to scratch. Now, even the government agrees. The minutes of a June 2016 meeting organised by the government with NGOs says, "The issue of mismatch of expertise of Special Education Teachers (SETs) and needs of CWSN was raised. Disability mapping of CWSN should be the first step." The meeting was attended by directorate officials and representatives of many organisations.

"The special educators are single-disability trained. We have offered to train in cross-disability and inclusive education so that they can help children and teachers," says G Syamala of Action for Ability Development and Inclusion.

The DoE's meeting minutes explain that each working group will include two NGOs (or institutes) and one department official. One will work exclusively on learning disabilities — help identify children who have them, "finalize...tools for assessment of learning disabilities", "provide lucid instructions for...teachers", "prepare training module for assessment of these children."

Another will develop teaching aids. There'll be a central resource library in every zone — 29 libraries distributed over 13 school districts. These will serve as repositories of resources for special educators, teachers, parents and the kids themselves. The All India Confederation of the Blind has offered to work with the Delhi Bureau of Text Books to producing Braille and large-print texts.

Members also agreed on developing "zonal resource centres" — essentially one school in a zone capable of extra support — for children "with severe disability." This, however, doesn't mean more 'special' schools — fundamentally contrary to the idea of inclusion. "Recipient[s] of these services (CWSN) will study in their schools" and the centres will offer "specialized services". Major changes to the administration are also being considered including creation of special posts to implement programmes and monitor.

The AICB president AK Mittal has sent the DoE a list of other suggestions including "orientation and mobility" training for the visually challenged, "expanded core curriculum activities" for disabled children and "school-mapping for the placement of special educators."

India becomes first country to ratify Marrakesh Treaty - first step towards access to published works to print disabled

Dear colleagues,

India has become the first country to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are blind, visually-impaired or print disabled. This treaty would  go a long way towards establishing equal rights and opportunities for education and employment for persons with print disabilities.

Like any other international treaty/ convention, it will come into force the day the 20th country ratifies it. So far, 79 World Intellectual Property Organisation member states have signed the treaty, however they are yet to ratify it. The treaty ratified by India on June 30,  2014 will facilitate import of accessible format copies from member states by authorised entities in India such as educational institutions, libraries, etc. serving the needs of visually-impaired persons.

"The development will also facilitate translation of imported accessible format copies and export of accessible format copies in Indian languages," said the statement issued by Ministry of HRD on the subject. The Indian Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012, is reportedly already in harmony with the Marrakesh Treaty.

Here is a related news from OutlookIndia

India Takes Global Lead in Empowering the Blind to Read

भारत मर्राकेश समझौते को समर्थन देने वाला पहला देश बना

JULY 2, 2014

पत्र सूचना कार्यालय
भारत सरकार
मानव संसाधन विकास मंत्रालय

02-जुलाई-2014 15:09 IST

मर्राकेश समझौता नेत्रहीनों के लिए प्रकाशित कार्यों तक पहुंच सुलभ कराने में होगा सहायक

भारत 30 जून, 2014 को नेत्रहीनों, दृष्टि बाधित व्यक्तियों के लिए प्रकाशित पुस्तकों/कार्यों तक पहुंच सुलभ कराने में मदद से जुड़े मर्राकेश समझौते को समर्थन देने वाला पहला देश बन गया है। अभी तक विश्व बौद्धिक संपदा संगठन (डब्ल्यूआईपीओ) के 79 सदस्य देशों ने इस समझौते पर हस्ताक्षर किए हैं। 20 देशों द्वारा इस समझौते को समर्थन दिए जाने के बाद मर्राकेश समझौता लागू हो जाएगा। 

संयुक्त राष्ट्र संघ में भारत के स्थायी प्रतिनिधि श्री दिलीप सिन्हा ने डब्ल्यूआईपीओ के मुख्यालय में एससीसीआर (कॉपीराइट एवं संबंधित अधिकारों पर स्थायी समिति) के 28वें सत्र के दौरान आयोजित एक समारोह में डब्ल्यूआईपीओ के महानिदेशक श्री फ्रांसिस गुर्रे को समर्थन पत्र सुपुर्द किया। 

मर्राकेश समझौते का मुख्य लक्ष्य नेत्रहीनों, दृष्टि बाधित व्यक्तियों के लाभ के लिए अनिवार्य सीमाओं और अपवादों के एक संकलन का निर्माण करना है। यह अनुबंधकारी पार्टियों द्वारा राष्ट्रीय विधि प्रावधानों के अनुपालन से ब्रेल जैसे स्वीकृत रुपों में प्रकाशित कार्यों के पुनर्निर्माण, वितरण तथा उपलब्धता सुनिश्चित कराने के जरिए किताबों की भीषण कमी की समस्या को दूर करने में सहायक होगा। साथ ही, यह समझौता ऐसे संगठनों, जो उनकी सेवा करते हैं, को इन पुस्तकों के विभिन्न देशों में आदान प्रदान की अनुमति भी देगा। जैसे ही मर्राकेश समझौता लागू हो जाएगा, यह भारत में लाखों नेत्रहीनों और दृष्टि बाधित व्‍यक्तियों के लिए प्रकाशित पुस्‍तकों तक पहुंच सुलभ करा देगा। यह उनके लिए शिक्षा और रोजगार के अवसरों तथा समान अधिकारों को सुनिश्चित कराने में भी मददगार साबित होगा। 

यह समझौता दृष्टिहीनों के लाभ के लिए काम करने वाले शैक्षिक संस्थानों, पुस्तकालयों जैसे भारत के अधिकृत संगठनों द्वारा सदस्य देशों से सुलभ फॉरमेट प्रतियों के आयात में भी सहायक साबित होगा। यह समझौता भारतीय भाषाओं में सुलभ फॉरमेट के आयातित प्रतियों के अनुवाद तथा सुलभ फॉरमेट प्रतियों के निर्यात में भी मददगार साबित होगा। भारतीय कॉपीराइट (संशोधन) एक्ट, 2012 मर्राकेश समझौते के अनुरुप है। 

Source: I Care India

"UP has no fund to implement RTE Act" | iGovernment.in

Dear Friends

I fail to understand, how a public representative - the Chief Minister of a State can say this, while poorer states like Assam have gone ahead with seal to implement the same.


It is loud and clear that while the Chief Minsiter has sufficient money to create her statutes and parks and also to develop a security force to protect the statutes created at the cost of public money, while she has no money to invest in children of her state and protect their fundamental right to compulsory and free education guaranteed by the Constitution of India!

Have such politicians any right to remain on the crucial posts they hold?



"UP has no fund to implement RTE Act" iGovernment.in

regards
SC Vashishth

A tuition free university - Standardised Education for All

Dear Friends,

I had always dreamt that education should not be open to buying. Its is something that one should learn and earn by hardwork and practice. Since the time Education began to be bought, it became the necessity to earn money too! Young girls and boys today think of education as means to earn money.

I remember some great hindi poet saying, शिक्षे तुम्हारा नाश हो, तुम नौकरी के हित बनी!

To me education should be open to all irrespective of whether the student is rich or poor. Devi Saraswati should be accessible to all irrespective of his/her economic status. In India, Indira Gandhi National Open University has set new standards in bringing education to the door steps. However, there is a good course fee attached to it.

Can't the Government subsidize this and let the students pay once they pick up a job after the course. It might be utopia as of now. However, UN has something like this in mind and an online tuition free Open University, to me is a great step in that direction. It would not only help in standardizing the education but also make its reach easier and cheaper to those who have time and money constraints. This would also reduced the monopoly of some money focussed institutions on higher education too.

Hope this would also amaze you. But there are some hidden charges still which perhaps need to be sorted out gradually. However, I welcome this as a very positive step.

regards
Subhash Chandra Vashishth

Here is the news: To read from source click here


UN launches online, tuition-free university

The world's first online university will use open-source technology and course material, to bring a high level of learning to its students. Published on 5/20/2009 2:07:54 PMBy Shubhendu Parth

New Delhi: The UN Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technology and Development (GAID) has announced the launch of world's first tuition-free online university.

The university would use open-source technology and course material, alongside peer-to-peer teaching to bring a high level of learning to its students, sources at the United Nation (UN) said.

The initiative, rightly called the University of the People (UoPeople), is part of the agency's focus on education for year 2009 and is aimed at offering higher education to the masses.

"This year the Global Alliance has focused its attention on education [and] how ICT can advance education goals around the world," a GAID spokesperson said. "For hundreds of millions of people around the world higher education is no more than a dream," UoPeople Founder Shai Reshef said pointing out that people are constrained by finances, the lack of institutions in their region, or are not able to leave home to study at a university for personal reasons.

He further stressed that the University will enable people to continue their studies from home and at minimal cost by using open-source technology, open course materials, e-learning methods and peer-to-peer teaching.

"The high-quality, low-cost and global pedagogical model embraces the worldwide presence of the Internet and dropping technology costs to bring collegiate level studies to even the poorest and most remote places on earth," the University claimed on its website.

Reshef further said that in order to open access to as many people as possible, no material requiring broadband connections, such as video, would be used, which would enable people restricted to dial-up connections to follow courses.

And while, he hopes that there would be associated projects to supply computers to those without them, Reshef hoped that people without computers and Internet can still be able access, either through a centralised public computer, an Internet cafe or private machines.

According to sources, while a minimum of 12 years of study is mandatory pre requisite for those seeking admission at UoPeople, students would also need to pass an orientation course in English and computer skills in order to continue on to the major, which would require 40 courses, similar to most undergraduate degrees.

Students will be placed in classes of 20, after which they can log on to a weekly lecture, discuss its themes with their peers in a kind of chat room helping each other understand the material and take a test online.
If students still had problems after discussing the material with their peers, they could go to a course forum where they could consult with academics.Reshef also informed that to fund the University, there would be a sliding scale of fees for admissions and exams—depending on the World Bank's wealth-ranking of each student's home country—from US $15 to US $50 for admission.

Besides, students would also need to pay a processing fee for every test ranging from US $10 to US $100. For the University to sustain its operation, it needs 15,000 students and US $6 million, of which Reshef has donated US $1 million of his own money.

The University also plans to mine much of its course material from courses already made available on the Internet, free of charge, by major institutions like Stanford University in the United States. "However, the term open-use has to be defined carefully to avoid problems," he clarified.

Talking about the initiative Bangladesh's Ambassador to the United States Humayun Kabir and a member of the UoPeople advisory committee said, "The University is an innovation that will be remembered for a long time because of the degree to which it would increase access to higher education around the world."