Supporting Differently-Challenged Learners in the Open School System in India

Abstract

The role of information and Communication technology in the development of education has been well-emphasized in the history of education all over the world. ICTs provide platform for upgrading of knowledge and skills, exchange of creativity and inter-cultural dialogue. No doubt, large scale of initiatives are undertaken to integrate ICT in school education in India and it has been found successful through Sarva Siksha Abhiyan. But millions of children in the school-age population particularly among the multiple challenged populations are still out of school, who have greatest need of them. Even those who are enrolled in school, they don’t attend school due to lack of disabled friendly infrastructure and other demand side factors such as lack of parental interest and economic reasons, and factors related to the child’s disability. In this context, open schooling can be considered as the viable option considering that mainstreaming disabled population into knowledge society is an urgent task for the developing India. Based on a case-study based approach, the paper articulates how National Institute of Open Schooling, an autonomous organization in pursuance of National Policy on Education 1986 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India has taken number disabled friendly initiatives for their education. As a result, the enrolment and performance level has increased between the years as compared to their nondisabled counterpart. While the effective use of new ICTs has provided them an innovative platform for the development of new learning needs and new patterns of information access and application, evaluation and student support services are designed in such an innovative manner they find it flexible and friendly to the system of open and distance learning.