Only a self-absorbed and selfish society would ignore the plight of 130 children suffering from hearing and listening disorders who attend the Abhinanda Home
School for special children has only one instructor
Srinagar: The Valley’s lone school for children suffering from hearing and listening disorders, Abhinanda Home, has only one instructor for 120 differently able children.
Nasreena Banoo, a Braille instructor is the only teacher at the school and struggles to cope up with the pressure of teaching 120 children studying at Abhinanda Home at Rambagh Srinagar.
She mostly uses the Hindi medium to communicate with the children and English medium is used rarely. Apart from teaching Braille these differently able children are taught making chairs, chalk and candles. Abdul Hameed, an elderly has an experience of 20 to 25 years working in this school imparting “chair making” training to the blind.
N Gopalaswami Ayanagar laid the foundation stone of the school on July 14, 1941. Located on the Rambagh roadside, the Abhinanda Home has two buildings and spacious lawn. It has classrooms with speech teaching room for deaf and dumb and Braille instructor room for blind children.
The school was started in 1972. In 1977, Arshid Siddiqi joined the institute as a senior teacher and single handed taught the differently able children studying between Nursery and 8th standard. The children studying in the school are not admitted on the basis of their age groups instead every special child is made to sit in the nursery and provided with basic insight of education from the primary level. The deaf and dumb are taught different signs like lip movement, sign language and speech reading facilities.
“The main objective of Abhinanda is to produce a group of students with developing skills who are otherwise just obsessed with passing exams and do not have the urge to rise above the divisive tendencies which is hidden inside them,” says a teacher. Shabir Ahmad a visually impaired student said, “The infrastructure here is poor. There is not much staff and we have only one instructor. This blind home run by the Social Welfare department is just a disgrace.”
The school session starts from October-November and education is free of cost. Jan Muhammad, who studies in 5th standard says, “During exams we dictate our answers to the writer who appears in the exams on our behalf. More trainers and teachers should be appointed in the school so that they can prepare us for the challenges outside.”
Executive Officer of the Abhinanda Home, Tajinder Kour told Rising Kashmir that the students are expecting miracles from us. “Independently we cannot do things as the Government is not granting us funds to cater to the needs of our students,” she said. “For any development the basic need is of avenues, which this home doesn’t have. The special hearing aids and other stuff are being provided by J&K Police.”The only apparent difference between the normal and differently able students is their syllabus, which is half that of the normal ones. “We have a number of pass outs who are now well established and have made a name of their own,” says a teacher at the school.
(Rising Kashmir)