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KALAM EXPRESS to Educate Children with Special Needs on Doorstep
Chandigarh has launched mobile education facility for children with special needs living in slums, it is called Kalam Express.
To educate children living in slums is a tedious task, but to educate special children in slums is probably the most difficult task, but not impossible! With this belief, Chandigarh has started its mobile school called KALAM EXPRESS; where quality education will be imparted on the doorstep, that too free of cost.
Chandigarh got India’s second school for mentally and physically challenged children, which was launched by Punjab and Haryana Governor-cum-UT Administrator Kaptan Singh Solanki.
The first such school was launched by UT Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi and his wife Gauri Prashar Joshi, Director, Haryana Tourism, in Jind. Since then, 200 special children have enrolled at the Jind school.
“Here, in the first go, we will cover 193 kids and we will start the second such school on wheels within two months,” Joshi told, while disclosing that the school would work for six days a week and focus on slum areas in the city.
Equipped with therapy equipment and educational toys, the mobile school will be supervised by a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist while special educators and caregivers will educate and take care of the students.
“At present, we have used an old Red Cross vehicle for launching the mobile educational-cum-rehabilitation unit, but we will buy a new vehicle for the second school on wheels,” Joshi said.
The DC, who is sharing the project expenditure, disclosed that Rs 10 lakh was the estimated capital cost of the project while the recurring cost would involve fuel and establishment expenditure, which the UT Red Cross Society will bear.
Solanki further added the unit would cover special children in peripheral slums and rural and rehabilitation colonies. He said children who are not able to commute to school for attaining education due to their special needs, would be covered under home-based education.
The mobile school is these children's MAGIC BUS! 🙂
Images courtesy: admser.chd.nic.in