The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : None to ‘hear’ their woes

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Sunday, Jul 13, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

None to ‘hear’ their woes

Staff Reporter

Hearing-impaired in need of good teachers

HYDERABAD: Vidya K., a teenager with hearing impairment, finished her plus-two with flying colours and now aims at pursuing B.Com. from the Helen Keller’s Institute of Research and Rehabilitation for the Disabled. Despite being a school topper, she does not want to study beyond graduation.

“Though she is all for further studies, finding good teachers who can teach the hearing impaired at post-graduate level is difficult,” her cousin K. Lakshman says interpreting her sign language. Yet, Vidya is fortunate in that her parents could afford her study in private educational institutions for the hearing impaired.

Startling it may sound, but education beyond Intermediate is not offered by the State government for the students with hearing impairment.

Even getting this far is very difficult as the only junior college for them is located at Bapatla and it has only 60 seats. Offering a single group of humanities with history, economics and civics, it rules out any choice for the students wanting to excel in other streams.

“Even schools set up for the hearing impaired do not have instructors with specialisation in teaching them. Teachers from ordinary schools are posted there on transfers. As a result, students end up with confused and incomplete learning,” says M. Srinivasulu, president of Network of Persons with Disabilities Organisation.

He also claims that students are so weak in English that they cannot construct meaningful sentences even after finishing Intermediate course. Education becomes especially difficult for the girl children because parents would be unwilling to send them out.

Further, they are alienated from the rest of the family, partly for their inability to communicate and partly because they are considered a burden. Once they attain puberty, Mr. Srinivasulu says, parents focus their attention only on getting them married, least bothering about complications later.

Atrocities overlooked

“Even where the women are subject to atrocities in their marital homes, parents try to remain aloof, in turn leaving the daughter in depression and self-denial,” he says. Economic empowerment helps to some extent, but most often employers do not pay the hearing impaired on a par with other employees.

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