PROMOTING BETTER EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
FOR CHILDREN WITH HEARING IMPAIRMENT
M.S.Lalithamma
Generally, children with
hearing impairment are grouped under disabled or challenged children who need
to be attended to with a separate focus perspective and efforts. Realizing the importance of integrating these
children under the mainstream, efforts have been made under the centrally
sponsored IED programme to educate such children especially at the primary
schools through specially trained teachers in such schools. Under this
programme, the special teachers receive special salary benefit and
children receive books, uniforms, allowances for medical, hostel, transport,
equipment etc.
The UN- ESCAP Decade of the
Disabled (1993-2002) indicated that the countries in the region should make
Education for All for disabled children a reality by 2002, implying that all
the member countries including India should achieve literacy rate on par with
that of non-disabled children by 2002. This target has still remained a utopian
dream (Mani, 2002). Efforts should be made to provide
secondary education to more number of children with disabilities.Along
with efforts to achieve universalisation of
elementary education by 2010, by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), efforts are also
being made to universalise secondary education (CABE
committee Report, June 2005). The CABE committee advocates the need for a
paradigm shift in the conceptual design of secondary education and suggests
four guiding principles on which universal secondary education can be built.
‘Universal access’, being one of the principles, suggests that solving the problem of providing access at
the physical level alone for the child with disability or a child from deprived
background or a girl child without a change in the mind sets of the classmates,
teachers and the curriculum planners or text book writers would be inadequate.
The school should be able to create a new cultural ambiance and a child
friendly curriculum. Another principle related to equality and social justice
suggests that the school system will have to strive for 6 dimensions of
equality and social justice namely; a) gender, b) economic disparity, c) social
i.e.; SC and ST, d) cultural (including
the issues of religious and linguistic diversity, e) disability (both physical
and mental), and f) rural-urban. These need to be reflected in the curriculum
to build up the self esteem of each child so as to ensure that all children are
able to complete secondary education. While discussing the quality of secondary
education, the CABE Report suggests the
need for paradigm shift in the conceptualization of secondary education from
mugging up of a few content items for writing examination to school as a
holistic living experience, whereby it is more inclusive to allow every child
the right to exercise her full potential and achieve excellence. Adequate
opportunity must be offered for exercising varieties of intelligence expressed
in the concept of multiple intelligence and unfolding
the full potential in each child. The different types of intelligence including
linguistic and verbal intelligence, logical – mathematical intelligence,
spatial intelligence, bodily kinaesthetic or sport
intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intra-personal intelligence
and naturalist and environmental intelligence need to be nurtured.
All the above thinking
related to universalisation of elementary education
and universalisation of secondary education suggests
that disabled children are not to be discriminated from non-disabled children.
Both have to be treated at par in all walks of life. The disabled children are
not charitable objects but as productive members of the society as non-disabled
counterparts. A change in the approach in education and inclusion of ‘disabled
children’ in the society should start from the primary level itself and
continue at the secondary level and beyond.
International declarations on special education point out that disabled
children should be included in general education. The general educators should
be concerned about disabled children as much as special educators. An inclusive
education means creating conducive learning environments for all.
Focusing on hearing
impaired children, one would like to examine the question ‘whether they are
disabled at all’? The concept of disability is a relative term. It is a context of a
group of members with respect to a specific factor. An individual in a group
can become disabled on any factor but not disabled on some other factor. Further,
the concept of disability connotes a negative note, whereas the concept of
ability connotes a positive note. Again, the contextual factors in the society
make one individual as disabled non-disabled. Hence the same contextual factor/
factors should be adapted to suit the needs of the individual to make him non
disabled. If one examines the percentage of dropout of children from normal
school at the end of elementary stage and secondary stage which is about 50%
and 60%, such children who drop out are they not disabled, if they come out
with no minimum literacy, numeracy and vocational
skill? This situation emerges when instruction and curriculum is not
differentiated according to the differential needs of children. When the
principle of ‘One suit fits all’ is applied, everybody will be disabled except
for the one who fits into the suit. In other words, the instruction,
curriculum, examination system, the infrastructural facilities etc., in a
school system should cater to the needs of all types of children so that nobody
is branded ‘disabled’. This is what is
implied by ‘inclusive’ education. Some of the adaptations need to be more
specially designed with hearing impaired children. It may not be appropriate to
bracket them as children with disability (physical and mental) as mentioned in
CABE committee report. Except the sensory handicap in hearing they are normal
or more than normal than children without such handicap. Because our methods of
teaching, examination and instructional materials are all verbal oriented,
which demand acquisition of lot of words by children with or without meaning,
hearing impaired children find it difficult to adapt to the learning environment and opportunity created
by the teacher along with children without hearing impairment. The hearing
impaired children may not require a change in the curriculum but they require
adaptations in the methods of presentations, display, content etc. that will
enhance learning. Such approach helps children with hearing impairment as well
as who have learning problems without any hearing impairment. May be more use
of non-verbal communication helps both children with or without hearing impairment. Suitable communication and instructional
strategies which promote the independence of these children is required.
Hearing impaired children find it difficult to communicate at the secondary
level due to the absence of a uniform sign language and also due to the limited
vocabulary in the existing sign language documents. Sri Ramakrishna Mission
Vidyalaya,
To conclude, some
principles which are common for children with or without hearing impairment:
*Hearing impaired children
are to be treated on par with children without hearing impairment in all walks
of life. A new cultural ambience should be created with changed mindset to
treat all children alike.
*Differentiated
instructional methods and materials are to be provided for children with
different learning needs thus ensuring equality and social justice.
* The curriculum should be
child friendly and build up the self esteem of each child.
*Adequate opportunity
should be provided for nurturing multiple intelligence,
leading to unfolding of full potential in each student.
*The teacher should focus
on information processing, rather than information giving; play a facilitators
role in the classroom by providing suitable learning environments to all types
of children with different background and sensory capabilities, so as to make
each child construct his/her own learning in a joyful child-friendly situation.
*The four pillars of
learning suggested by International Education Commission 1996 namely; learning
to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be should
form the basis of curriculum and instruction.
REFERENCES
Mani, M.N.G. (2002) Challenges of secondary education for
the disabled. In
NIEPA Secondary Education - The Challenges Ahead. NIEPA,
MHRD: Dept. of Secondary & Higher
Education (2005) Universalisation of
Secondary Education (Report of the CABE
Committee).Govt. of