Inclusive Education is an integrated approach to take care of the needs of children with special needs. Learning Disabilities in the form of Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, Behavioural concerns, Slow learners, Partially hearing impaired or Visually impaired children need special attention. Our school has taken the initiative to cater to the needs of such children as early as August 2002, by establishing a Special Education Centre to help them with academics with special aids and support systems. We also provide scribes whenever the need arises.
There are three Special Educators exclusively trained in dealing with Learning Difficulty to take care of children with special needs in our school. Special Educators provide services in diagnosing and assessment of children and also providing remedial intervention in terms of special education. About 60 to 70 % of main stream teachers have been given briefing on various disabilities, as it is important to create awareness.
The centre has trained about 100 students in the last decade and some of them have performed extremely well not only in academics but also in co-scholastic activities such as Art and craft, games, visual art, oratory competitions and so on.
We have integrated Life Skills Education in our regular school system and we believe it is an integral part of schooling for children to grow healthy and adjust well with all kinds of situations and people in life. In Life Skill Education class we ensure that children with special needs are given equal opportunity to participate with other children through various group activities, role plays and it has been seen that they learn better in a more practical manner. In our Inclusive Education programme we apply Multiple Intelligences, take a child friendly and non-threatening approach to teaching and skill building.
As a Special initiative, Sishya School organized a programme sensitizing about 1000 Heads of Government Schools on Learning Disability on 28th August 2010. This was presided over by Dr Perumalswamy, Director of School Education, Government of Tamil Nadu and an expert lecture was given by the renowned Clinical Psychologist Dr. Virudhagirinathan.
Some of the special needs children are sent for external assessment to obtain accommodations available with the CBSE Board examinations.
Our future plan is to establish an NIOS centre to children who have completed 8th standard to provide opportunity to complete their basic education.
Inclusion of children with disabilities in general education environments will support improvement in terms of educational achievement and non-academic outcomes of students with disabilities.