Studies of special kids suffer as resource centre lacks space

Sameer Singh

Trubune News Service

Bathinda, February 21

Lack of adequate space is posing the biggest hindrance in providing education and training to differently abled children studying at District Special Resource Centre near the Nai Basti area here. A gym, library, classroom and office are operating from a single room at the centre.

A total of 36 differently abled children in the age group of 7 to 17 years study in the centre, which was established in 2013. But owing to lack of space, studies and training activities of these children often get affected.

Talking to Bathinda Tribune, Ravi Kumar, Inclusive Education Resource Teacher, said, “There is a single room in the centre due to which carrying out educational and training activities often get affected. We have apprised the authorities concerned of the requirement a number of times, but to no avail. We teach students and give physiotherapy sessions in the same room. Beides, trainings and extracurricular activities also take place in the same room.”

He said, “Recently, we have got a cloth printing machine to train children how to design logos or texts on T-shirts and clothes, but we do not have adequate space to train them. So, the printing machine is lying locked in the carton ever since we brought in it here. Learning the skill of printing clothes can help these children get employment in future. The district administration or the Education Department must provide us adequate space or rooms so that we can conduct training and other activities without any hindrance. They are very talented kids and if given proper training, they can be self-sufficient.”

Apart from getting education to the primary level (PSEB syllabus), these special children are also taken to educational trips on regular intervals.

“To ensure that children do not get bored and discontinue their studies, we also ensure their participation in various entertainment-based extracurricular activities, besides celebrating almost every festival at the centre every year. They also get an opportunity to stay close to our cultural roots. With such activities, our efforts are to bring these children to mainstream who are otherwise stigmatised,” said Mona Rani, Inclusive Education Volunteer at the centre.

Deputy District Education Officer (DEO) Bhupinder Kaur said, “Officials of the district administration had proposed a plan to acquire land of Government Girls Senior Secondary School, situated adjacent to the centre, where three rooms will be constructed for District Special Resource Centre.”