Thirteen years after Aamir Khan starrer ‘Taare Zameen Par, highlighted how learning disorders like dyslexia can’t stop kids from becoming a star, the government has finally taken note of problem and has also start redressing it.
As step one, the Yogi Adityanath government has started preparing special text books for kids suffering from Intellectual and learning disabilities owing to down syndrome, fragile x syndrome, attention deficit disorder (add), dyslexia or autism etc.
The move could well allow these intellectually disabled kids to soon get enrolled in government-run primary and upper primary schools of the state, say officials.
In perhaps first such move in the country, the state government has begun developing Hindi, English and Mathematics textbooks of classes 1 to 5 specially tailored to the needs of intellectually disabled kids, informed Ajai Kumar Singh joint director, State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), UP.
Prayagraj-based English Language Teaching Institute (ELTI) and State Institute of Education besides Rajya Hindi Sansthan in Varanasi functioning under SCERT, are among the institutions busy preparing these books, he added.
He said that ELTI-Prayagraj was preparing books for English, SIE-Prayagraj was doing so for mathematics while Rajya Hindi Sansthan-Varanasi has been entrusted with the task of preparing books for Hindi for these special need kids.
Next, the plan is to prepare environmental studies and Sanskrit subject books for these kids, said Singh.
Officials share that the state Divyang department has already sent the course curriculum of various subjects specially prepared for these kids to Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) for approval.
Post RCI approval, these kids will be able to enrol in government-run primary schools just like kids of other disabilities like hearing and visual impairment who are already studying in these institutions. Once ready, these books would also be available for other institutions (non-government) having kids suffering from these problems, officials claim.
ELTI-Prayagraj principal Skand Shukla confirmed that his institute was busy preparing books of English for children with Intellectual disability. “We are busy designing the books with the help of language experts and those active in the field of dealing with kids of special needs and learning disabilities. Some of the institutions with whose experts we are working with includes Asha schools of Indian Army, Dr Shakuntala Misra National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University, Prayagraj and Bureau of Psychology, Prayagraj,” he added.
He said that these books are being prepared keeping in mind the specific challenges of these kids and that fact that they have problem in understanding many things. “Based on the feedback from experts, the presentation of the content will be different in these books besides even the paper material used and thickness of pages will be different soa s to help these kids study easily,” he explained.
