New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS): Svayam Foundation and National Bal Bhavan (NBB) unveiled Indias first teacher training certificate programme designed to cater to the needs of children with special needs here on Wednesday.
The curriculum of the six-month long programme has been formulated with the aid of Ramakrishna University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu and follows the guidelines as set in National Skills Qualification Framework (NSFQ) mandated by Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD).
The course is aimed to help train teachers to include children with special needs in art & culture, sports and other creative activities at Bal Bhavan.
"It is essential that we play our part in ensuring an inclusive and accessible education. Svayam Foundation is extremely proud to contribute in its own way in helping NBB hold this programme to train its faculty," Sminu Jindal, Founder and Chairperson, Svayam Foundation & Managing Director at Jindal Saw Ltd, said in a statement.
Svayam Foundation, established in 2000, is one of India's first and one of the most vocal Accessibility Rights organisation. The Foundation has been working in various spheres of society to ensure dignity for people with restricted mobility through sensitisation, advocacy and training.
"People need to have skills to identify different types of disabilities. In India there are 2.68 crore people who have some sort of disability, of whom 76 per cent live in rural India. Out of this lot, 1.14 lakh are children, all this according to 2011 census," Indumati Rao, Vice-Chairperson, NBB told IANS.
"Our first batch will be ready by 2017. We have tried to imbibe a true spirit of inclusion in the curriculum. This is first of a kind capacity building programme not only in India but in whole South Asia," she added.
Jindal also underlined the need for accessibility at public places like hospitals, toilets, theatres, etc.
"Infrastructure is enabling, it can let you or restrict you from making use of certain places. People need to be sensitised towards theses issues," she said.