Mentor workshop organized by SSA concludes

Excelsior Correspondent
Jammu, Jan 16: A six day workshop for District Coordinators and Resource Teachers for Children with Special Needs (CWSN) concluded today.
The workshop was conducted under Inclusive Education (IE) component of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) with a view to enriching the District Coordinators and Resource Teachers with the latest systematic tools and techniques of training children with various disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Autism Spectrum Disorder in the age group of 6-14 years. The valedictory function was chaired by Saugat Biswas, State Project Director, SSA / RMSA.
There are 24343 children with special needs enrolled in various schools of the State.The disabilities include low vision, blindness, hearing impairment, speech impairment, orthopedic impairment, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, cerebral palsy, learning disability and autisms spectrum disorder.
The School Education Department through 74 resource rooms, which have been established by SSA across the State are manned by Resource Teachers and District Coordinators. These resource rooms are equipped with various aids and appliances for the support of the CWSN. Eighteen District Coordinators and 17 Resource Teachers participated in the six day workshop. Apart from State Level Resource Persons,Urfana Amin, Rafiq Reshi and Taha Tufail, special experts Dr.Suman Agarwal, Ms.Pooja Thapliyal and Ms.Preeti Siwach were invited from outside the State.
Dr.SumanAggarwal and Pooja Thapliyal, experts from “Sarthak”,New Delhi trained the participants regarding the difficulties and acceptance of cerebral palsy and mentally retarded children apart from curriculum adaptation and behaviour modification. The experts shared the techniques to teach CP and MR children with the participants.
Preeti Siwach from “Action for Autism”, New Delhi, sensitized the Resource Teachers and District Coordinators regarding Autism Spectrum Disorder among the children, difficulties faced by them, their acceptance in society and classroom situations apart from behaviour modification and teaching strategies.
On the concluding day, Saugat Biswas, State Project Director, SSA/RMSA took detailed review and feedback about the problems faced in implementation of the component in the field from the District Coordinators and the Resource Teachers. The SPD assured that the various problems that have come to light, shall be addressed in the near future.

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