The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : 69,000 disabled children covered under SSA

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

69,000 disabled children covered under SSA

Special Correspondent

Workshop to showcase State's success in inclusive education

CHENNAI: More than 69,000 of the 79,000 children living with disabilities have been covered under the Inclusive Education of the Disabled (IED) component of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA - Education for All Movement) in Tamil Nadu.

The aim is to reach out to the rest and ensure that they are also given regular education. A workshop in the city on Wednesday would seek to showcase Tamil Nadu's success in inclusive education and ensuring that children with disabilities are brought into the mainstream without setting up special schools.The workshop being organised by the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development and the SSA secretariat would see more than 80 representatives from different States sharing their experiences under IED.

According to the SSA's project Director, Tamil Nadu, T.K. Ramachandran, the IED's target was children with difficulties in physically reaching a normal school. "Creating special schools is an option but too costly. If such schools are created at the taluk level, then the leaders would have difficulties in accessing the centre. The idea is to have the neighbourhood or village schools provide that special component education that meets the needs of the disabled children and in an atmosphere that helps in the child's cognitive, environmental and social development... " he added. The IED component this year was Rs.7 crores and 64,000 teachers and over 900 special teachers were trained.

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