ABOUT SHIKSHA

Preparatory School and Resource Center, for Integrated Inclusive Education for Blind & Low Vision Children, focusing on the visually impaired girl child. Shiksha Hostel for Blind Girls: provides quality and secure residential, training and mainstreaming facility for visually impaired girls!

Inclusion of people with vision impairment, into mainstream society at all levels, still remains a huge challenge in our country. The only way to address this grave issue is, to provide blind children, a comprehensive and an appropriately supported, integrated and inclusive education program from a very early age; which will suitably prepare them to cope with the sighted world, and thereafter support them through their educational journey through regular school for seamless mainstreaming and inclusion!

Visually impaired children, are more often than not, confined to live and function in a segregated environment, of their special schools or homes, with practically no chances of positive interaction with mainstream society; resulting in, them not being able to properly acquire essential professional and social skills; leading to them having to settle for a poor quality life, low productivity and reduced participation in mainstream society! This is more so in the case of the visually impaired girl child! Very few families wish to accept them in their homes, hence, are forever on the lookout for any place, where they can deposit their blind daughter for good! Hence, the Shiksha Hostel has been set-up to give such girls, a quality and secure shelter, along with required mainstreaming skills and trainings; and, from here our female students will only go out into the world, once they are empowered, independent and confident young women!

The above situation also results from shortage of quality, accessible and secure support systems available for the education of visually impaired children; and also from the apparent lack of value their families may perceive in investing time and resources towards educating their blind child!

Shiksha is making available, the below mentioned services; at the Shiksha Preparatory School & Resource Center, plus, at Shiksha Hostel for Blind Girls, situated at Mayur Vihar Phase 3 East Delhi! Here we equip blind children with all required proficiencies, information, opportunity, knowledge, communication, personality and social skills development that will ultimately assist them in finding their rightly deserving professional and personal position in mainstream society!

At Shiksha, blind and low vision children are dexterously prepared for integrating into regular schools, where they, as well as the schools they go to, are appropriately supported to make this a successful inclusion programme! This center initially provides necessary life skills and other requisite trainings, including building in the students, strong values and positive attitude, from the age of 4 years onwards; and the moment they are ready with these basic qualities, , they are admitted into suitable mainstream schools. We are teaching them, right from day one, to acquire proficiency in using latest available technology, i.e. computers and smart phones, for their studies and other needs for rapid mainstreaming. we take care of their after-school study, homework and assist them by helping them get accessible study materials, according to their individual requirement. Ample exposure to mainstream life is provided to them, via educational and recreational out of door activities. Physical fitness, nutrition and positive interaction with nondisabled community is encouraged, and is included into their curriculum; to ensure, all round development of their personality and growth!

• We focus upon developing in the students, learning abilities like: independent life skills, daily living skills, personal hygiene, toilet hygiene, dressing, eating and functional mobility.
• Sensory training, tactile stimulation and auditory stimulation that focuses upon touch, hearing, smell and taste are given special emphasis to strengthen the ability to perceive and understand objects and environment.
• They are introduced to reading and writing in Braille.
• They are also introduced to numbers and beginner-level mathematical calculation using Taylor Frame and abacus.

We not only train visually impaired children, but counsel their parents also to enable them to groom their child properly.
Our visually impaired hostellers are trained in cooking, complete home management skills and computers as well.
We provide them with vocational trainings in Recruitments, catering and cooking; and are in the process of setting-up of training in commercial Laundry.
The above vocational training units will ultimately be converted into business units, where some of the visually impaired girls along with sighted yet underprivileged girls will be given employment and these units will be able to make our organization completely self-sustainable!


In case you may like to refer any visually impaired female to Shiksha, please contact us.