Developing Indicators for Assessment and Accreditation of ...
Transcript of Developing Indicators for Assessment and Accreditation of ...
1
Developing Indicators for Assessment and Accreditation of Special Schools
1Prof.V.Rajeswari ,
2 Dr.J.Ida Rose Paulin
C/o L.Jayaprasad ,
54/2 Noyce Road,
Kodaikanal. 624101, Dindigul District, TamilNadu, India
“People with disabilities are vulnerable because of the many barriers we face:
Attitudinal , physical, educational and financial. Addressing these barriers is
within our reach and we have a moral duty to do so...... But most important,
addressing these barriers will unlock the potential of so many people
with so much to contribute to the world. Governments everywhere can no
longer overlook the hundreds of millions of people with disabilities who are
denied access to health, rehabilitation, support, education, and employment
and never get the chance to shine. “ - Stephen Hawking
Overview
Educational Institutions play an important role in the society , in fulfilling social, economic,
educational and scientific values. Stakeholders of the institution should therefore stress upon
responsibilities to the public, good citizenship and importance of moral and ethics. Thus, they
should not only meet the needs of students but also expectations of whole community. In today‟s
challenging era, educational institutions have to face many strategic problems that can affect the
institutional performance preferably true for institutions working in special specific areas. These
challenges may be non-availability of qualified staff, accountability of governance, and lack of
proper educational infrastructure and infrastructure and environment etc. These factors many times
pose serious threat to educational institutions. To meet these challenges, the educational institutions
should meet the requirements and expand their programmes and facilities to the standard of global
level. Therefore a process of assessment and accreditation is a must to promote institution to
achieve core competencies to meet requirements successfully In this context the special education
International Journal of Pure and Applied MathematicsVolume 119 No. 18 2018, 3301-3316ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version)url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/Special Issue http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/
3301
2
institutions for the Differently abled /Disabled are not exceptional. Of course they need more
attention.
International Perspective:
Not only do definitions for disabilities differ across countries but these also differ and
change within a country with evolving legal, political and social discourses. World Bank (2007: 12)
notes that “the real prevalence of disability in India could easily be around 40 million people, and
perhaps as high as 80-90 million if more inclusive definitions of both mental illness and mental
retardation in particular were used”.
The National Policy for Persons with Disabilities (2006) recognizes that Persons with
Disabilities are valuable human resource for the country and seeks to create an environment that
provides equal opportunities, protection of their rights and full People with disabilities are
vulnerable because of the many barriers we face: attitudinal, physical, and financial. Addressing
these barriers is within our reach and we have a moral duty to do so...... But most important,
addressing these barriers will unlock the potential of so many people with so much to contribute to
the world, that too through proper education and training.
A number of International commitments and guidelines came into effect in the recent past
targeting the welfare of the disabled persons. India is a signatory to the „Declaration on the Full
Participation and Equality of People with Disabilities in the Asia Pacific Region‟ (2000). India has
ratified the „UN Convention on the rights of Persons with Disabilities‟ (2008). India is also a
signatory to the „Biwako Millennium Framework „(2002) for action towards an inclusive, barrier
free and rights based society. The „Biwako Plus Five (2007): further efforts towards an inclusive,
barrier-free and rights-based society for persons with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific‟ added the
emphasis.
The Governments of the ESCAP region gathered in Incheon, Republic of Korea, from 29
October to 2 November 2012 to chart the course of the new Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons
with Disabilities for the period 2013 to 2022 and adopted the Inchoen strategy which comprises 10
goals, 27 targets and 62 indicators. The Incheon strategy builds on the Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action and Biwako
Plus Five towards an Inclusive, Barrier – free and Rights - based Society for Persons with
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3302
3
Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific. This will enable the region to track the progress towards
improving the quality of life, and the fulfillment of the rights of the region‟s persons with
disabilities
Asian and Pacific Perspective
The Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the
Pacific (2012) provides the Asian and Pacific region and the world with the first set of regionally
agreed disability inclusive development Goals. The Incheon strategy will enable to track progress
towards improving the quality of life, and the fulfillment of the rights, of the region‟s persons with
disability. The Sustainable Development Goals (2015) pledges for „leaving no one behind‟.
Recognizing that the dignity of the human being is fundamental, the SDGs wish to see the Goals
and targets met for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society and to endeavor to reach
the furthest behind first. As a member India is also accountable for special education of the
disabled.
Indian Perspective:
As per the Census 2011, In India out of the 121 Cr population, 2.68 Cr persons are
„disabled‟ which is 2.21% of the total population. Out of total Population121.08 Cr. Males are
62.32 Cr, and Females 5 8.76 India [2011] and among the disabled persons, males are 2.68 Cr
and females are 1.18 Cr. Among the disabled population 56% (1.5 Cr) are males and 44% (1.18 Cr )
are females. Majority (69%) of the disabled population resided in rural areas (1.86 Cr disabled
persons in rural areas and 0.81 Cr in urban areas).
The disability among children is a matter of serious concern as it has wider implications.
The Census 2011 showed that, in India, 20.42 lakhs children aged 0-6 years are disabled. Thus, one
in every 100 children in the age group 0-6 years suffered from some type of disability. 1.24% of
the total children (0-6 years) are disabled. The percentage of male disabled children to total male
children is 1.29% and the corresponding figure for females is 1.19%.And Rehabilitation Council of
India monitor the teacher education institutions which offer academic programmed in Special
education which pre service education but it realized that there is no such strict rules and regulation
applicable for establishing and running Special schools. In this context a research has been take up
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3303
4
to develop the indicators to assess the accredit the special schools specially functioning for special
children.
Educational attendance of disabled children (5-19 years) The Census 2011 showed that,
61% of the disabled children aged 5-19 years are attending educational institution. How they
special schools should be .Since he authors are from this area of specialization they realized that all
the special schools are not up to the mark actually which should be additionally taken care off
because it is of the Disabled children. Here the researchers had taken into consideration the special
schools, that too with special reference to the Intellectually Challenged students.
Intellectual disabilities also referred to as Mental retardation (MR) is a generalized
disorder appearing in childhood. It is characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning.
It is often defined as an IQ score under 70. A person with a below-average intelligence quotient
may not be considered mentally retarded. There was an overwhelming feeling that it is most
important to look first at the individual. Although labels are a predominantly a strong social factor,
it seems that it not only hurts the children to label them, but also the words „intellectual disability‟
can be harsh to parents and children. Not only do people receive the label intellectual disability but
sometimes also mental retardation. The label „retardation‟ has many negative associations beyond a
special needs label. Intellectual disability may help to bridge the gap. Assessment and accreditation
aim to take up evaluation and it can be seen as a problem solving that involves many ways of
collecting information about the students and their school. Assessment is a process that involves the
systematic collection and interpretation of a variety of information on which to base instructional
intervention decision and when appropriate, classification and placement decisions. Assessment is
primarily a problem solving process. That is the focus of this research and the title of the research is
„Developing Indicators for the Assessment and Accreditation of Special Schools.‟ Here the special
schools refer only to the schools of the intellectually challenged and other categories.
All people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Fortunately, there are laws in
place to safeguard the physical and emotional well-being of the mentally challenged. Many laws
that were not targeted toward the mentally challenged can be summoned to protect their rights.. It
also outlaws discrimination because of age, skin color, height, national origin, physical or mental
disability, sex, race, religion or weight.
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3304
5
Assessment and Accreditation of Special Schools
The special schools are assessed and accredited on the basis of the requirements for the education of
intellectually challenged students fulfilled by the special schools.
Do our special schools of disabled [IC] have all these components? How it should be?
These are the research questions and the investigation got the data from the stake holders to
establish the answer. Thirty Three Special schools in Tamilnadu for the Intellectually Challenged
were taken as the sample to get their opinions of the stake holders viz., teachers, parents and
administrators. Experts from three state were collected TamilNadu, Karnataka and Andhrapradesh,
covering 28 institutions. Attitude scales towards an Ideal Special School [IC] were constructed
[Rajeswari.v and J.Ida Rose Paulin, 2013] separately for parents, teachers, administrators and
experts with 49,56,34 and 49 items respectively and they were validated. It is quantitative cum
qualitative research.
The empirical part of this research reveals that there is no significant difference between the
teachers with different qualifications of the teachers towards the attribute of special schools. There
is also no significant difference between teachers with respect to their years of experience towards
the special schools. Moreover men and women teachers do not differ in their attribute. And it is the
case with care givers/parents, administrators and experts
Education of the Disabled [IC]
• Special Schools
• Barrier free/user friendly environment
Training and Treatment for their
Behaviours
• Speech Therapists
• Occupational Therapists
• Physiotherapists
• Vocational Trainer
Special Support
• Special Transport
• Medical Treatment
• Sheltered workshops
• Rehabilitation centerss
• Vocational training Cetneres
• Assistive Technology
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3305
6
Criteria for consideration:
Teaching Faculty
A special education teacher is responsible for providing the students they serve with direct
instruction in the area of content with which the student has an identified learning disability. The
special education teacher is responsible for writing, reviewing, and implementing all Individual
Education Plan‟s (IEP) for students served. They also are responsible for scheduling meetings for
IEP‟s.It has to be mandatory for the school for the assured human resource in running an
educational institution for special children. Special Teachers/Resource teacher can only educate
them in the proper way with specialized pedagogy techniques.
Core Faculty
It is a fact that no other single group of persons with handicap demands the services of so
many different professionals in the rehabilitation process. Hence an inter-disciplinary team of
professions is required to train the special teacher to handle the person with retardation as a “whole
person” which is still lacking in majority of the special schools. In some schools they have as
visiting faculty but not as the permanent faculty
Actually as per the norms of RCI [Rehabilitation Council of India ] all the institutions should
have
Faculty for Special Education (Full-time)
Essential qualifications: a) Masters in Social Sciences, Humanities & Sciences
b) Diploma in Special Education (M.R.) or B.Ed. in Special
Education (M.R).
c) Minimum Two years experience of teaching in special schools for
persons with mental retardation (Post Qualification Experience).
d) The Candidate should be registered with RCI
Faculty for Psychology (Full-time)
Essential qualifications: a) Masters in Psychology with M.Phil. in Medical and Social Psychology
OR
b) Masters in Psychology with special paper on Clinical Psychology /
Educational Psychology, with two years experience in working with
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3306
7
persons having mental retardation. c) The Candidate should be
registered with RCI
Instructor (Technical)
Visiting Faculty
Essential Occupational Therapist,Speech Therapist,Physiotherapist,Psychiatrist
Paediatrician,Social Worker
Desirable
Nutrition Specialist ,Vocational Guidance Specialist,Yoga Therapist,Neurologist
Health Care Nurse ,Dentist ,Orthopaedic Surgeon,Rehabilitation Officers
Library/Media Specialist
A library media specialist oversees the operation of the library including the organization,
ordering of books, checking out of books, return of books, and re-shelving of books. The library
media specialist also works directly with the classroom teachers to provide assistance in anything
associated with the library. They also are responsible for teaching students library related skills and
creating programs that develop lifelong readers.
Reading Specialist
A reading specialist works with students who have been identified as struggling readers in a
one-on-one or small group setting. A reading specialist assists the teacher in identifying students
who are struggling readers as well as finding the specific area within reading which they struggle. A
reading specialist‟s goal is to get each student they work with on grade level for reading.
Intervention Specialist – An intervention specialist is much like a reading specialist. However,
they are not just limited to reading and may assists students who struggle in many areas including
reading, math, science, social studies, etc. They often fall under the direct supervision of the
classroom teacher.
The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g. buildings, roads, and power
supplies) needed for the operation of a school for special children is discussed in detail.
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3307
8
INFRASTRUCTURE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION CLASSROOM
To provide children with special needs with comfortable, safe, and controlled learning, it is
important to create continuity in the environment so that they would have equal access to education
like typical students. Therefore, the specific infrastructure, such as barrier-free facilities, wheelchair
access, a comfortable classroom, and safety aspects, should be taken into account for purposes of
teaching and learning.
NEED ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Rehabilitation needs are specific for disabled people. For anyone intending to study the
needs of disabled people, it is essential to have an understanding of the social structures and the
cultural traditions. This knowledge can only be acquired from people who have been living in the
particular community for a long time, who share the culture, and who are familiar with local
conditions. Outsiders will need many years of experience, and to evaluate the specific need of
disabled people by working with the local people. To find out the nature of disability and its degree
assessment tools and the expertise in using the tools in a school is must for the special schools [IC]
Rehabilitation programme is to be managed by the community, utilizing its own resources,
it must be planned, structured and implemented in line with local customs.
Functional assessment refers to using informal assessment to find out what extent the
disability has affected the functions .Functional assessment is useful in places, if there are no
professionals available to assess the impact of disability on daily living functions.
Special Education: Literary Skills, Social Skill and vocational skilla
Educable mental retardation is a delay in acquiring basic reading, writing and counting skills
emerging through late speaking and linguistic development along with social, emotional or
behavioral problems. It is pointed out that such children have intelligence in the 45-74 IQ range
and that they are competent in terms of language skills, perception power, memory capacity,
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3308
9
imagination and creativeness. It needs to be designed in order for them to improve their skills
of understanding themselves, establishing positive social relations, adjusting to the social,
technological and physical environment and surviving independently. This has to be designed
by the apex body and implemented for schools of the special children .Academic flexibility
shall be there in relations to the ability of the special children
Curriculum feedback shall be received from the stake holders, parents regularly to modify and
meet the requirements of the individual special child. The best practices must shared with the
felloe teachers.
Physical facilities with ramp, rail , wheel chair need to be provided. User friendly toilets must
be constructed and need to be maintained hygienically periodically every day since it is used by
the intellectually challenged children
Maintenance can be taught to the special children but additional responsibility lies with the
administrators .Library practices can be given only the school and not by the individual parents
always.
LEARNING RESOURCES
. ICT blended education help them in their learning process which is research proven. Hence
blended learning need to be implemented with digital archives. Moreover additional effort
should be taken to improve the self-control skills, cooperation skills and internalizing problem
solving skills .These social skills need to be trained effectively for these special children
through activities, animations and performance
STUDENT SUPPORT WITH EXPERTS AND OTHE ADDITONAL INFRSTRUCTURE
FOR THE PHSYICAL EDUCATION
Student progression need to be discussed on regular intervals because partnership between the
teacher and the parents are indispensable. Networking among the teachers and parents will take
the child to a better destination. Games and sports shall be made available for special children
with special provision and that must be started from the school itself. It is mandatory for the
special schools to concentrate on identifying and improving their special talents. Music –vocal
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3309
10
and instrumental, performance arts must be taught to them .A clinic shall be attached to a
school, because they are vulnerable to illness
Student activities must include the physical activities and they should be trained to earn their
lively hood and make them more independent.
GOVERNANCE & LEADER
The Correspondent, the Directors and the Principals need to be trained in running the special
schools through orientation programme. When the Institutional Head is updated then it is to
monitor the system. Strategies to be designed according to the nature of location of the school, the
socio- economic profile of the parents and the nature of the special children Orientation
programmes and workshops and summer school need to arrange for the in-service training because
the special school have more untrained teachers.
In the strengthening human resource, the government has to take the initiative and provide the
trainings on different aspects of special school and inclusive set up. Special teacher recruitment
shall be done as per the norms otherwise the approval need to be suspended/cancelled.
Attitude of stake holders of Special Education with reference to the Intellectually Challenged
towards each item against each criterion is given below
The researcher through her validated tools in finding out the attitude towards the attribute
of Experts, Parents, Administrators and Teachers collected data against each item of all the criteria
and the scoring is presented in percentage form for easy understanding .They are presented below
for each criteria.
Infrastructure
Sl.No Focus Criteria E% P% A% T%
1 Auditorium Infrastructure 84 87 -- 90
2 Toilet Infrastructure 99 91 -- 96
3 Residential Infrastructure 94 92 57 --
4 Adequate Classrooms Infrastructure 98 92 -- 99
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3310
11
5 Library Infrastructure 82 99 77 --
6 First Aid Infrastructure 96 93 94 --
7 Lighiting Infrastructure 100 -- -- 95
8 Ramp Infrastructure 90 -- -- 94
9 Barrier Free Environment Infrastructure 98 -- 86 --
10 Auditorium Infrastructure 84 -- -- 90
11 Water Infrastructure 99 95 -- --
12 Transport Infrastructure 94 89 -- 67
13 Computer Usage Infrastructure 84 -- 60 --
14 Playground Infrastructure 96 95 -- --
15 Indoor Outdoor Infrastructure 100 87 -- --
16 Infrastructure Infrastructure 98 96 91 86
17 Canteen Infrastructure 64 86 -- 87
Student Support
Sl.No Focus Criteria E% P% A% T%
1 Occupational therapy student support 98 95 95 91
2 Medical care student support 99 87 97 97
3 Earnings student support 94 -- 60 89
4 Handle children with MR student support 90 96 -- 98
5 Co curricularactivities student support 98 99 95 --
6 Vocational training student support 94 94 -- 94
7 Referral student support 98 -- -- 100
8 Caregivers student support 93 -- 86 --
9 Fees nominal student support 93 95 -- --
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3311
12
10 Fees concession student support 93 90 -- --
11 Concern student support 88 93 -- --
12 Counselling student support 99 -- -- 98
Best practices in teaching and learning
Sl.No Focus Criteria E% P% A% T%
1 Parents teachers of IC
children must be frequent
Best practices in
teaching and learing 95 96 91 --
2
Good rapport and effective
communication between
teachers and parents
Best practices in
teaching and learing -- 93 86 99
3 Staff meeting Best practices 95 -- -- 96
4 Teacher student ratio Best practices 92 -- 97 --
5 Parents involved in training
and training Best practices -- -- 89 88
6
Faculty Development
Program on IC and their
education
Best practices teaching
and learning 99 -- -- 91
7 Feedback of IEP Best practices 100 -- 100 98
Human Resource Development, Maintenance, Student progression, teaching learning process
Sl.No Focus Criteria E% P% A% T%
1
Suggestions for
development of
institution
Institution mission and
vision
-- 97 83 89
2 Qualified teachers Teachers qualification 96 -- 97 87
3 IEP Teaching learning process 100 98 -- 99
4 Necessary qualification Teachers qualification 98 -- 97 87
5 Campus neat Maintenance 99 -- 94 --
6 Record maintenance Maintenance 99 -- 97 91
7 Tour HR development 91 85 80 --
8 Treat staff equally HR management 95 -- 86 94
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3312
13
9 Parent teacher relation Hr development -- 93 -- 99
10 Organise seminar, conf HR development 90 95 91 94
11 Exploring talents Student progression 100 -- 97 98
12 Competitions Student progression 98 -- 77 91
The attitude of Teachers, Parents, Administrators and Experts towards the Attribute of
Special schools is given each separately with percentage against each item and the bold numbers
represents the total percentage of agreement of the respondents for each item. It enabled the
researcher to consolidate and determine the items under each criterion.
FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
The consensus of criterion determined out of Qualitative Research
Feedback system related to curriculum and teaching in Special School is considered as vital
IEP system related to curriculum and teaching in Special School is a must
Faculty Development Program system related to enhancement of the teachers personality in
Special School
Qualified teachers with specific specialization in the particular area of disability‟
Contact definitely with the parents of special children to improve the teaching and learning
of special children in Special Schools
Teacher student ratio in special schools i.e, 1:8 should be definitely followed
Periodical Staff meeting must be conducted regularly for better sustainability
First aid facilities and practices are mandatory for teachers
Residential facility in Special School
library facility is must in a Special School because the special teachers need to equip
themselves and there is a need for the parents too since the learning materials
Ramp and Rail facility
Transport facility is a must in Special School
Conduct of competition in Special Schools
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3313
14
All types of Therapeutic services and its experts visit
Free Medical Check up
Educational tours must be arranged every year in Special Schools
Conclusion
Disabled are generally disliked, disregarded and misbehaved by the normal people. It is
mandatory for all of us , on the other hand it is our responsibility to raise our fellow beings , to rise
above their disability and do something to make them to become a productive member of the
society and also they have to fight the social wars waged against them through quality special
education to improve their cognitive ability as a predictor of the general ability of the learner and
need to focus on the Foundation Phase curriculum content in daily teaching. To sum up the school
for children with intellectual disability need Class Room Teaching, Physio Therapy, Speech
Therapy, Dance, Drawing, Games / Sports, Vocational Training, Life Skills, Medical Check up by
doctors. When children with intellectual disability are given such attention by the experienced staff
in such activities as mentioned above, the self-confidence of the students will grow more and pave
the way for the development of human resources aspect. The research findings have shown that
depending on the individual, psychological stamina, adapted communication ability, their attitude
towards others, using of materials and tools, quality of output and their consistency of performance
will improve definitely according to their capacity on their own pace and given the indicators
desired by the stake holders of Education of Intellectually challenged These can treated as the
indicators for assessment and accreditation of special schools[IC].Only then the achievement of
institution should create a sense of pride and satisfaction among its stakeholders and wards. The
thrust of institution should always be towards „pursuit of professional excellence informed by social
purpose” if these criteria are fulfilled in special schools.
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3314
15
References
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders.
4th ed.Washington, DC: APA, 1994.
Luckasson, R., Coulter, D.L., Polloway, E.A., et al. Mental retardation: Definition,
classification,and systems of support. 9th ed. Washington, DC: American Association on
Mental Retardation,1992.
. Mercer, C.D., King-Sears, P., and Mercer, A.R. Learning disabilities definitions and
criteria used by state education departments. Learning Disability Quarterly (1990)
13,2:141–52;Mercer, J. Labeling the mentally retarded. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 1973.
MacMillan, D.L. Issues in mild mental retardation. Education and Training of the Mentally
Retarded (1988) 23:273–84.
Disabled Persons in India : a Statistical Profile 2016.Scoail Statistics Division, Ministry of
Statistics and Program Implementation,Govt. of India 2016 in
http://mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/Disabled_persons_in_India_2016.p
df
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001866/186611e.pdf
http://mospi.nic.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/Disabled_persons_in_India_2016.p
df
Dr G. Agila , Dhamayanthi Arumugam,” A Study On Effectiveness Of Promotional
Strategies At Prozone Mall With Reference To Visual Merchandising”, International
Journal of Innovations in Scientific and Engineering Research, Vol. 5, Issue .6 , 2018,
pp.47-56.
International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics Special Issue
3315