Developing Indicators for Assessment and Accreditation of ...

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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/

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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

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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


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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.


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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


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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


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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.


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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,


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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


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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


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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


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 -- --


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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


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


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


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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


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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.


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References

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Luckasson, R., Coulter, D.L., Polloway, E.A., et al. Mental retardation: Definition,

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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

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Dr G. Agila , Dhamayanthi Arumugam,” A Study On Effectiveness Of Promotional

Strategies At Prozone Mall With Reference To Visual Merchandising”, International

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pp.47-56.


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