Special Educators Must be Available To Every Needy

The story of the young girl from Kerala, Sophie Joe, raised quite a stir as she represented India at the Miss World deaf and dumb. It cuts out a picture of dedication, resolve and above all how special education can work wonders.

Schools for mentally disabled have been a great tool in making the lives of thousands of affected children make their way up. India has lakhs of such children who are faced with one or other disability, and there is grave need for professional specialists.

In Sophie’s case, she was blessed to have her family come together united. They stood by her to see her through from obstacle to other. But a large part of that success comes from the efforts put in by those who educated her. It was the confidence she drew out of her ability to feel at par with the world that made her aim and achieve bigger things in life.

This is where special education I feel has key role to play in shaping up things of thousands of needy children.  Like Sophie, who got her education partly home-tutored and partly through special tutors at a nearby school for autism, there are millions in need of the same.

But given our prevailing infrastructure, it calls for picking up the slack on investments and how they are invested for optimized infrastructural growth. Perhaps even more than that, we need the society to develop a fabric of compassion and responsibility.

There are hundreds of thousands of qualified teachers in the country serving the mainstream. Special education stream however is in dying need of trained faculty. Its time those with a flair for the profession of teaching go a notch above and get themselves in a position where they can leverage lives of a million special children. That would be a great platform for India to make a mark in this world.