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DU Attendance Menace

By DU Beat November 3, 2018

Attendance criteria have never been one of the more appealing factors for college students, and Delhi University students are no strangers to the frustration this causes.

Delhi University mandates a minimum of 67% attendance for students to be eligible to appear for their semester exams. Adding to that, DU sets aside five per cent marks that are only awarded to students according to their attendance in a particular semester.

However, recently, it has been observed that colleges like Hansraj College have mailed cautionary letters to the homes of most attendance defaulters. In copies obtained by DU Beat, it was seen these letters consisted of the incorrect letterhead and grammatical errors. This makes one question the veracity of these letters that most students feel threatened by. Additionally, these letters are addressed to parents, and not students. This also makes one question the ethics of this, considering the fact that all students are adults and are held personally liable for all their actions (pertaining to activities in college) and usually, such an action is considered an invasion of one’s privacy.

It is a well-known fact that the attendance guidelines are used to incentivise students to maintain their attendance. Despite this, large numbers of students continuously fail to fulfil even the minimum requirement. This is because of a variety of reasons.

Many students live off campus, that adds to the travel time for most students who might not find the commute ‘worth it’. Classes are usually unevenly dispersed over slots from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., sometimes with 3-4 hour gaps in between. This is mostly due to logistical issues, pertaining to paucity of lecture halls or teachers. The advertisement section of the University of Delhi (DU) website stands proof of the number of vacancies in DU currently, right in the middle of the academic year.

Another reason for the same is extracurricular activities that occur during college hours. These are extremely important to cultivate your talents, increase your skill set, add to your CV, and develop your overall personality. Most colleges offer attendance benefits but these are only taken into consideration in case if students represent the college in competitions. Some colleges like Gargi College have different attendance requirements (34%) for students involved in cultural societies, while others don’t. This lack of transparency and these arbitrary changes in policy only add to students’ frustration.

Students working for society fests are often denied attendance benefits. Atishay Jain, a second-year student at Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) said, “I spent days preparing for our CMS (Computers and Mathematics Society) Fest, and only received benefits for 1 of the actual 3 days of the Fest. I think it becomes a trade-off between managing co-curricular and managing attendance. I choose the latter.” Adding to this, it is up to the discretion of teachers whether or not they want to consider benefits. Many teachers of SRCC refuse to do so.

Mostly, it is observed that the classes don’t offer any intrinsic knowledge to students, with monotonous course material and teaching methods. Last minute lecture cancellations, without substitutes, are also a proponent of apathy and absenteeism among students. Some colleges also fail to provide students with minimum lecture hours, as a recent Delhi High Court case highlights. In Jule 2018, the Delhi High Court slammed Delhi University for detaining a large number of law students on the ground of “lack of attendance” despite the varsity’s failure to conduct the requisite number of classes for the sixth and final semester from January to May. The judgment was passed on a batch of petitions filed by final-year law students of DU challenging the arbitrary manner in which students were detained by the university this year by citing lack of attendance.

It is another well-known fact that for most colleges, this debarring isn’t stringently followed through by the authorities themselves. The administration makes attendance defaulters sign an undertaking, a promissory note guaranteeing fulfilment of the required criteria in the immediately succeeding semester.

These factors add to students’ frustration and uncertainty, with growing apprehension to mandatory attendance requirements. This also makes one question the quality of lectures and tactics (or lack thereof) employed by colleges to make their students attend classes.

Feature Image Credits: Hans India

Nikita Bhatia

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DUB Speak

World Student’s Day: An Ode to Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam

By DU Beat October 14, 2018

‘Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.’ Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was one of the most loved Presidents of India. Due to his love for students and focus on promoting education, the United Nations declared his birthday,15^th October as ‘World Student’s Day’ in 2010.

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was a scientist who made India proud with his missile defence programme. His contributions to the Indian Space Research Organization are unforgettable. Numerous projects were headed by him such as the launch of the Rohini-1, Project Devil and Project Valiant, and, developing missiles.For his great contributions in improving the nuclear power of India, he is popularly known as the ‘Missile Man of India’. But his favourite job was teaching, and that is how he wanted the world to remember him.Due to his love towards education, students, and his efforts in promoting education, United Nations declared his birthday as ‘World Student’s Day’ in 2010.

According to him, the modern ideology of being a well-learned person is to sharpen the merit of a student. For any student, to rise from being average to an extraordinary one, only bookish knowledge was not sufficient, one should walk the paths of all branches, like theory, reading, understanding and its practical application. Dr.Kalam once said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults”. Dr.Kalam believed that if children were moulded in their attitudes, values, ideas and, ideals, a better world with a hope for tomorrow could be achieved. The best method of education was by imparting behavior patterns. Teachers and parents should behave in such a way as to instill values in children. Enlightened behavior of parents fosters a spiritual and moral atmosphere at home. According to Dr. Abdul Kalam, knowledge has many forms. Knowledge is acquired through education, information and experience. Ironically, all through school, we were taught to read, write, and speak but never to listen and even today, the situation is the similar. Dr. Abdul Kalam considered the children of India the future of the country and always showed his deep concern over the increasing atrocities being perpetrated against them.

His sudden demise on July 27, 2015 shocked the nation. Dr.Kalam passed away doing what he loved best i.e. teaching. Delivering a lecture to the students of Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam fell down the stage suffering a stroke and passed away on the spot. The entire nation grieved his demise irrespective of caste, creed, location or religion.

Feature Image Credits: NDTV

Anoushka Sharma

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DUB Speak

The Lack of Liberal Arts Universities in India

By DU Beat October 12, 2018

In a country obsessed with engineering and medical degrees, the field of humanities takes a step back. There is a lack of liberal arts universities in the country when compared to government, and science and technology related institutions.

College admissions are a testing time for a student. The probability of getting in to one’s preferred college/university is very exhilarating, but the more important question is the choice of stream for one’s further studies. Education in India for high school and further education is a division on ‘streams’. The predominant ones are science, commerce, and humanities. They are hierarchical in nature, as for an Indian parent the order places science at the top, followed by commerce, and humanities respectively.

The article brings to light a prominent issue in the Indian higher education scene: the lack of liberal arts universities. Liberal arts, within the past decade, has been a good study option for a lot of students. In the western universities, there is a major focus on their course structures to cater to the liberal arts facilities. In comparison to their eastern counterparts like India and other Asian universities, liberal arts is still a blooming concept, majorly restricted to private universities.

Liberal arts as a concept was first designed by the Greeks and Romans, as a form of essential education required for an active civic life. Basic subjects taught under it were grammar, rhetoric, logic, etc. However, in the modern curriculums, liberal arts has grown into a multitude of different subjects, with a promising prospect of varying skills and producing students as global citizens with a multi-dimensional knowledge of different subjects.

According to the most recent published data by University Grants Commission, on 25^th September 2018, there are a total of 318 Private Universities established by the Acts of the Legislatures of different states. In India, some of the more prominent and well known, liberal arts universities include universities like Ashoka University, O.P. Jindal global university, FLAME Pune, etc. While these universities offer attractive courses and world class infrastructure, the high fees is a major concern for potential students. These universities also promise world class standardised education, career prospects, and partnerships with big companies for future job prospects. A major attraction to these universities is the ease of adaptability one has, for pursuing post-graduation courses abroad, due to the similarity in course and work structure.

The study of humanities is still taken quite lightly. A lot of the state and centre-run universities and colleges provide a basic Bachelor’s degree in the mainstream subjects of humanities. There is neither much versatility in course selection, nor enough staff to ensure introduction of more flexible course structures. A major benefit which students adhere to a degree from these government run institutes is the feasibility of education. It is economical and reputed. A lot of students also wish to take it up as it helps in the preparation for their civil services aspirations later on. A popular career option is also academia and politics. While a major attraction today on a global level is MBA, with B-schools offering seats to over five lakh students every year according to a recent Assocham report,, a lot of students in these colleges are from engineering and commerce backgrounds. .

A major factor for the lack of universities catering to liberal arts is also because of the demand-supply factor.. According to the general thinking of an Indian family till date is that engineering and medical sciences remain the most highly opted courses in the country, as they are considered “safe” options.. India, along with other Asian countries, is also the biggest supplier of IT and technically skilled labour in the world. Hence, when compared to other Asian countries, the state of Indian universities is almost the same. . Even though the liberal arts courses provide a number of career options the general desire for high-paying jobs and a better standard of living is a driving force to opt for other courses. Luxury and sustenance is considered to be of a greater value than personal “passions” and hobby in a country like ours.

From the beginning, there has been good investment in institutes related to science and technology, and management like Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management etc., which are government backed and autonomous, and have been given international accreditation. Government sponsored liberal arts universities are fewer in number, but very highly accredited. Universities like English and Foreign Languages University are known for delivering quality education in different foreign languages like Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, among many others, and in areas such as Education, Literature, Linguistics, Interdisciplinary and Cultural Studies etc.

The need to have more liberal arts universities in India is a must, as they offer a great deal of flexibility in subject options.. There are options like deferred admissions, and students often take a gap year to explore their courses more thoroughly, and also volunteer in their time off.

Liberal arts universities remain a popular choice for the upper middle class and the more affluent sections of the society in the urban areas. A major reason why this happens is because of soaring fees. While India is endowed to take its education sector in the same manner as in countries like the USA and the UK, where higher education is expensive, India should try to incentivise the private universities to bring more scholarship and financial aid opportunities. This is apart from the present situation wherein the government itself caters to such services, albeit in a limited number.. Moreover, the government should also invest heavily in the improvement of higher education. . While public universities in India do have a very vivid course structure like that of foreign countries, the lack of options in courses is something which affects the career choices for students. A lot of the times, students compromise on their career options in lieu of studying and associating their profiles with a degree from a government institute.

The future state of affairs may seem bleak for now, but with so many different job portals opening up in every field, liberal arts may be taken seriously and more educational institutions would be put to practice for its sustenance.

Feature Image Credits: Perkins Eastman

Avnika Chhikara

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Campus Central

A Case Against the Commercialisation of Higher Education Institutions

By DU Beat March 23, 2018

The recent autonomy granted to 60 higher education institutions by the University Grants Commission (UGC) has unleashed debates regarding the increasing commercialisation of the education sector of the country. The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) has been on strike for the past five days protesting against the 70:30 ratio of funding recommended for central universities, which would lead to the blurring of line that separates the fee structures of private and public-funded education. Under this new funding formula, universities are being asked to generate 30% of the additional costs towards revised salaries for teachers and non-teaching staff on account of the 7th Pay Revision. If this formula is implemented, higher education will become inaccessible to thousands. The teachers have reportedly called their students to join the strike and show their solidarity. In such a highly charged atmosphere, it is apparent is that our access to affordable, high-quality education is in grave danger.

Ideally, it is the government’s responsibility to invest in higher education (as is the case in countries like Germany, Mexico, Finland), but the UGC’s new funding policy of grants being replaced by loans through the Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) for any infrastructural needs of universities means that the burden of providing affordable education would shift to parents and students. This has far-reaching consequences as it would lead to the marginalisation of students from backward communities and sections, an exclusivist academia, and eventually, the homogenisation and unilateralism of critical thinking.

Commenting on similar privatisation of American universities, Noam Chomsky, an American linguist and political activist pointed out how when corporate values and money start to govern the education sector, there are disastrous consequences ranging from greater job insecurity to a division of the society into the “plutonomy” (the small group which has the highest concentration of wealth) and “precariat” (the rest of population who live a precarious existence). Such a thrust for creating profit and hence, an emphasis on vocational courses and skills that would fit a globalised, capitalised world would mean that education would become education for the sake of it, and thereby lose its value. Colleges and universities would be forced to sell their brand, their reputations to generate funds for their use.

The rich cultural diversity of campuses such as DU and the empowerment of marginalised sections through affirmative action would cease to exist. Subjects like liberal arts, minority studies, gender studies, language courses are bound to get sidelined for their sheer ‘impracticality’ in a free-market economy. As Debra Leigh Scott mentions “If you remove the disciplines that are the strongest in their ability to develop higher level intellectual rigour, the result is a more easily manipulated citizenry that is less capable of deep interrogation.” Education would just be another commodity, available to the highest bidder.

What is even more disheartening is the lack of awareness among the students about how much this issue affects us all at the primal level. The fees hike would lead to an exclusive admission procedure, which would in turn increase the social and economic disparity between classes and various regions, leading to greater unemployment and higher dropout rates. The state has been carefully constructing a narrative of “autonomy” that is supposed to give the universities and colleges greater freedom to decide their educational blueprints. In reality, the purpose of education as a social good rather than a profit-making venture, our need for spaces for assertion of our diverse identities and issues, our access to tools for critical thinking and learning— are all getting endangered.

Feature Image Credits: Scroll.in

Sara Sohail
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Bazinga

Bazinga: Meritorious Students of the University to be Taken Abroad

By Radhika Boruah March 3, 2018

The University of Delhi is a hub of opportunities for the ones who are willing to take the chances.

In a recent release of a circular, the Dean of Academic Activities and Projects mentioned that from the upcoming session, students will be taken abroad on an educational international trip, fully funded by the University, and accompanied by professors.

The selection of students will be on the basis of an exam. Since it will be pan DU, undergraduate students from any course can apply. The exam will have elective subjects, English, and Logic. According to sources, if the students who have applied have previously worked on any research papers or projects, their selection chances are heightened. “We want our university scholars to get the best of the opportunities to explore places, find their passion, and work efficiently. This plan was proposed earlier but never managed to come into existence. We are now ready to cater to the students who have the will and the potential to become global leaders”, quoted the Dean of Planning, DU. The plan is to take the students out for international conferences, global summits, and organisational meets. Many colleges and universities abroad run student exchange programmes which are also to be accepted by DU. The students selected through the exams will be sent in the exchange programmes to universities like Yeshiva University, Columbia University, etc.

“Being a centralised government institution, Delhi University has achieved milestones and the students have never failed to bring glories to their beloved colleges in the name of DU. This will be another platform for the deserving candidates to showcase what they have learnt and discovered. We are hoping to hear about more such steps taken by the university” said the Principal of Lady Shri Ram College for Women. Shahjadi Rahman, a student of Zakir Husain Delhi College commented “This chance given to the students of DU will increase the prospects of acquiring practical knowledge, exposure, and experience – rewards of days of attending classes, taking notes, and studying. The skilled students will definitely get through it, and also have the most adept training for the future.” Few other students collectively said that this was not a good idea because there are students who may have potential but won’t be able to crack the selection exam. Mass participation is expected, but the students are wishing that the selection process be unbiased.

*Disclaimer: Bazinga is our weekly column of almost believable fake news. It is a humorous, light-hearted column that should only be appreciated and not accepted.

Feature Image Credits: Mecanica

Radhika Boruah
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DUB Speak

Budget 2018’s Focus on Education

By Prachi Mehra February 18, 2018

The Union Budget for this fiscal year was announced on 1^st February 2018. Here is a look at all the aspects concerning the student varsity of India.

Economists and critics have had their opinions about the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s last budget before the 2019 elections. Let us look at how education fared in Arun Jaitley’s last budget which mainly focuses on the agricultural sector.

1 lakh Crore will be invested in RISE (Revitalisating of Infrastructure and System of Education) till 2022 aiming to improve the state of quality education and infrastructure of such institutions. Similarly, Eklavya schools will be opened in areas of more than 50% tribal citizens. The real question is whether this money will be fully utilized in these missions or will the future generation of India still grapple with low standards of education in its government schools. According to studies, the quality of education in the already established government schools is abysmal and students often drop out.

18 autonomous Schools of Planning and Architecture will be made in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and National Institute of Technology (NIT) across the country. In the latest Prime Minister Fellows Scheme, 1000 B.Tech students of premier institutions will be selected to pursue their PhDs from IITs and IISs. They would be provided with handsome fellowships and be expected to teach in high schools for a couple of hours every week. This scheme would help scholars having limited means improve their job and future prospects. A Railway University will also be set up at Vadodara, Gujarat.

12.56 Crore rupees have been allocated for scholarships for students with disability. Government teacher training will also be provided to improve the quality of education in government. schools. The focus and benefits for startups are likely to create more jobs in the economy.

The government’s decision to reduce Employees’ Provident Fund from 12% to 8% is not an intelligent move as it decreases the employee’s retirement money as well as interest that could have been earned. No focus has been paid to construction of more medical colleges and availability of easy student loans.

The budget is not inclusive of all students and does not benefit them equally. The students’ votes would depend on how well the government performed during these past four years overall and how well it helped boost our economy. The economy is a vital tool in the functioning of any country, considering the fact that approximately 50% of the population is below the age of 25, the economy must cater to students due to abundance in numbers.

Feature Image Credits: The Financial Express

Prachi Mehra

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Right to Play and the Debate Around It

By Bhavya Banerjee December 31, 2017

Sachin Tendulkar in his debut speech at the Rajya Sabha spoke about the importance of Right to Play.

We live in a society today that houses extreme contradictions in its beliefs. Every Sunday we turn on the TV and enjoy a cricket match or a late night football game, but when it comes to allowing our own children to pursue a sport as a career in their lives it is, in most cases, frowned upon. When a child begins his/her schooling s/he is always taught to focus on education and is presented the same slippery slope argument, which is that good grades will lead to success. All other recreational or creative activities are branded to be “extra-curriculars”, implying they aren’t essential to one’s life and development. This approach, however, is absolutely flawed.

Very recently, India’s most loved cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar, who is also a nominated member of the Upper House of the Parliament, used his platform to voice concern over the matter of the exclusion of Right to Play in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education bill. In his speech, he laid emphasis on the importance of sports and urged the government to make the adequate amendment to the previously mentioned bill.

According to many psychological studies on child development, Play allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Play is important to healthy brain development. It is through play that children at a very early age engage and interact with the world around them.

This issue raised by the former batsman is not one to be taken lightly. It is of high relevance in a country like India where more than half of the country’s 1.25 billion population is below the age of 25 and more than two-thirds, below 35. This year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also used his platform and called upon children to engage in sports and take up other physical activities while expressing concerns over the rising number cases of obesity or malnutrition among children that are rampantly prevalent in India. Talking about this issue, the iconic athlete also cited many examples of national level players who are struggling to make ends meet while highlighting the importance of providing financial aid, he further added that sports can be considered an essential and mandated part of curriculum and consequently, each life should get the Right to Play at school.

Feature image credits: The Quint

Bhavya Banerjee

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Hope: The Scientifically Proven Mental Shield

By DU Beat October 29, 2017

In a recent study, it was proved that hope protects our brain from anxiety and expands our understanding.

Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen. It has been a stimulator, a motivator, and at times, the only positive force left in us when we are going through our bad times. Just like any other feeling, hope is intangible and unseen, yet it has been ever-present in us. And its presence has finally been identified by science.

In a recent study, Chinese psychologists found out that hope protects our brain from anxiety and expands our understanding of things that are happening as reported by Big Think. Defining hope as an important term in positive psychology, scientists conducted a survey on 231 students and found out that hope trait was related to the brain region that is involved in the reward-related procession, motivation production, and goal-oriented behaviour. “ Overall, this study provides the first evidence for functional brain substrates underlying trait hope and reveals a potential mechanism that trait hope mediates the protective role of spontaneous brain activity against anxiety” the researchers quoted as per the website.

Anxiety has long been the cause of our mental struggles. Anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, hypertension, and so much more, it is anxiety that has aided these diseases. Not necessarily as a disease, but people suffer from anxiety in various situations. In all those times when we were helpless, when we could feel that chill down our spine, when our mind was contemplating scenarios we feared to face, or creating illusions that demoralised us – we hoped. We simply sat there and hoped that things would be fine. We hoped that we would not have to endure the trauma, the stress, the pain, or the anxiety for long. We hoped that someone, somewhere, somehow could save us from all that was happening, or was about to happen.

Turns out, we were “the one” we were looking for, and hope was “the how” that protected our brain. The positive force that we clung on to in anonymity was actually helping us survive our mental battles and shielding us from all the negative forces trying to let us down. Science recognising hope as the protective force justifies all the endurance that we made all this while. This study proves that being hopeful protects our brain from harmful thoughts. It proves that we have a positive force within us that helps us combat all the negativity and gives us the strength to keep going. We should take this research as a benchmark and be ready to face whatever comes our way for all of us know that we have what it takes to wade through deep waters.

Feature Image Credits: ThinkingWords

Karan Singhania
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Uncategorized

In Conversation with Dr. Shaik Suleman

By DU Beat August 26, 2017

Dr. Shaik Suleman is the General Manager of Overseas Education Services at EdCIL India Ltd. EdCIL is a mini-ratna government company under the Ministry of Human Resource Development which provides education consultancy services to the MHRD.

Russia launched an initiative known as ‘5/100 initiative’ to boost the international faculty and students in its universities by 2020 as part of a wider plan to develop the global competitiveness of their universities. How does the government plan to increase its institutions’ global competitiveness?

Indian government in the recent days is trying to enhance the standards of the premier institutions of India and is already inviting foreign faculty through the ‘Gyan’ program. We are progressing in this endeavour.

According to HRD ministry’s All India Report on Higher Education 2015-16, only 45,424 foreign students were enrolled in Indian educational institutes whereas Indian students are the second largest source of international postgraduates in the UK. Are there any incentives the government plans to offer to invite more international students?

The official number is 45,424 students but informally more students are coming to India i.e. 1 lac students. Currently the government isn’t planning for any incentives but is working to generate more opportunities for foreign students to come and study in India. At present, our premier institutions like IIMs and IITs do not have any quota for foreign students but the government being a part of the Kasturirangan Committee is planning on providing some quota to foreign students which will hopefully increase their number.

3. At present, roughly a third of all German students spend some time at a university outside Germany during their degree programme and are working to increase it to 50%, are any plans in the pipeline for us, Indian students?

The UGC (University Grants Commission) has given directions to the universities stating that in the designing of the curriculum there should be an ‘Industry Interaction’ like Barcelona where students attend morning classes for theory study and in the afternoon they visit industries. Some of the deemed universities are planning for similar industry interaction. The government has initiated and the plans are in the initial stages, nothing has been finalised yet.

The University of California at Berkeley is setting up a new campus at Richmond Bay, California, where it plans to host 4-5 Asian and European universities.Has the Ministry thought of setting an Indian university in their campus?

We have not yet been given green signals regarding the same but renowned private universities of India like Manipal University etc. are planning to set up their campuses on foreign soils.

Providing incentives and inviting more international students would strength India’s ties with their countries and greatly influence India’s image as an emerging ‘education hub’, don’t you think?

We can provide scholarships to foreign meritorious students in the fee structure etc. Other than that, quality of education in the institutions need to be improved. Also, the communication and liaising between the institutions and foreign students need to be strengthened like smooth travelling, helping them in settling down in the Indian culture and exposing them to the Indian culture and diversity. Such aspects play a major role as well. For India to become an education hub, we need to upgrade our curriculum and provide courses with international validity like Big Data, Data Analytics or IOT (Internet of Things). On the other hand, we are very strong with IT and Science field. The other courses where we are not renowned but good marketing would solve the problem, then there is no stopping India from becoming an education hub.

Feature Image Credits : DU Beat

Prachi Mehra

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They Are One Among Us: National Policy on Education reaching out to differently-abled children

By DU Beat November 19, 2016

Amidst all the hullabaloo of the new US President Donald Trump and the newly printed Indian currencies, let’s change the theme to reflecting back on the Children’s Day celebration.

Undoubtedly, this world is full of miracles and children are one of them. But to understand that every person is equipped with a different and special quality is a backdrop for many. And also for parents having a child born differently abled is a life-long adjustment. Families must learn to accept and hopefully celebrate children who are not what they originally had in mind. Expectant parents usually dream that their new baby will have some of their features and grow up to share their values and interests. But what happens when the baby is very different from them because of a disability? How do the parents cope with raising this child, develop a bond of love and appreciate the child with his/her own individual characteristics? The answer is simple: to consider them as one of us and attend their special needs normally. Well, symphonies of Beethoven soothe our ears when he himself had hearing impairment as a birth defect. Works of the dyslexic child Albert Einstein rule our textbooks now. Disabled ones are differently abled.

Education for the differently abled children has been a story in highlights for the past decades. India has 20.42 lakh disabledchildren aged between 0 and 6 years. Around 71% of them – 14.52 lakh children – are in rural areas. There are 5.9 lakh disabled children in cities. Of them, 11.04 lakh are male and 9.38 lakh are female children. Among them, 1.49 lakh children have multiple disabilities. A report said that while India has made significant improvement in primary education enrolment, the figures for children with disabilities are staggering. Out of 2.9 million children with disabilities in India, 990,000 children aged 6 to 14 years (34 %) are out of school. The percentages are even higher among children with intellectual disabilities (48%), speech impairments (36%) and multiple disabilities (59%). These numbers portray the ignorance of the fact that disabled children are differently abled, not invalid or non-existent. They do need a label; they just need an individual identity and a secured place out of all dogma and denigration about their abilities. Education becomes a means to break open all the shackles of disabilities.

The government has initiated the National Policy on Education (NPE) – 1986: The NPE brought the fundamental issue of equality centre stage. Section 4.9 of the policy clearly focuses on the needs of the children with disabilities. “The objective should be to integrate the physically and mentally handicapped with the general community as equal partners, to prepare them for normal growth and to enable them to face life with courage and confidence. The following measures will be taken in this regard:

Wherever it is feasible, the education of children with motor handicaps and other mild handicaps will be common with that of others;
Special schools with hostels will be provided, as far as possible at district headquarters, for the severely handicapped children;
Adequate arrangements will be made to give vocational training to the disabled;
Teachers’ training programmes will be reoriented, in particular for teachers of primary classes, to deal with the special difficulties of the handicapped children and
Voluntary effort for the education of the disabled will be encouraged in every possible manner”.

People, no amount of acts are effective unless we do initiate the awareness that differently abled ones are one among us.

By Radhika Boruah

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