Dear Learner,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). I congratulate you for joining hands in this combined effort of IGNOU and Rehabilitation Council of India to develop an inclusive society and bring the dream of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan a reality. The Foundation Course is a Special Education Programme through Distance Education mode for General Education Teachers to develop basic understanding and competencies in them for dealing children with disabilities

The Centrally sponsored scheme of “Sarva Siksha Abhiyan” (SSA) or “Education for all” offers education to all the children including children with disabilities through General Schools at their doorsteps.  It has adopted the “Zero Rejection Policy” which means that every child irrespective of the kind, category and degree of disability is provided education in an appropriate environment. The SSA also has set time bound targets for achievement of Universalization of elementary education (UEE) by 2010. But, the most challenging task is to train so many teachers throughout the country, in order to address to all the children with disabilities.

It is with this objective to meet the educational needs of all the children with Disabilities, the Foundation Course is launched. This course is intended to meet the immediate need for catering to the children with disabilities by sensitizing and developing the required competencies to the in-service teachers, not only for imparting education to children with disabilities but also to help them in becoming a part of inclusive and right based society making ‘inclusion in education’ a success.

I wish you all good luck.

The Foundation Course on education of children with disabilities is a collaborative initiative of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), which is being offered through distance education designed for in-service teachers of mainstream Schools.  Presently this Programme is being offered in English, and will soon be offered in Hindi as well as in other Regional Languages.

 The Persons with Disability Act 1995 has a provision of providing education to children with disability in the most appropriate environment. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan launched by the Govt. of India underlines the prerogative of a child with disability to be included in the main system of education, however, all this cannot be achieved unless teachers are qualified to help such children and their parents. The Foundation Course has been developed to impart the basic understanding and competencies to the teachers of the mainstream school for dealing children with disabilities.  It enables the teacher to imbibe knowledge, understanding, attitude and skills to impart education efficiently to children with disabilities.  The efforts of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan 2000 to include all children including Children with Disabilities in regular schools will only succeed when all the teachers in regular education system are given competencies in dealing with special needs.
 
The course content of the Foundation Course endeavors to address the various issues and concerns related to children with disabilities in  “Rights” based perspective, as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006 envisages persons with disabilities enjoy all “Human Rights” on an equal basis with others,

In order to realize the objectives, the programme is designed as a combination of print material-based learning and face-to-face contact sessions, which can be completed in a three-month period. Though the print material is self-instructional in nature, to enable the learners to understand the printed study material as well as to provide individualized guidance and practical training regarding carrying out the various activities with the children with disabilities, face-to-face training programme equivalent to 120 hours will be organized by the Programme Study Centres. 

 The efforts of National Centre for Disability Studies (NCDS) for developing such an innovative programme of a comprehensive nature within a short duration are indeed commendable.  Let us all get into a knowledge partnership where we help and support each other to create a facilitating environment for Persons with Disabilities to become part and parcel of an inclusive society that we are aiming for in the near future. 

I wish you all good luck!

(Omprakash Mishra)
Pro-Vice Chancellor, IGNOU

The Indira Gandhi National Open University was established by an Act of Parliament in 1985 to achieve the following objectives:

• democratizing higher education by taking it to the doorsteps of the learners
• providing access to high quality education to all those who seek it irrespective of age, region, religion and gender
• offering need-based academic programmes by giving professional and vocational orientation to the courses
• promoting and developing distance education in India
• setting and maintaining standards in distance education in the country as an apex body.
  
  Prominent Features

• IGNOU has certain unique features such as:
• international jurisdiction

This Programme aims to develop basic competencies, knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills in teachers and enable them to cater to the specific educational needs of children with disabilities in regular classes. The teachers play a significant role in the formative years of a child and their empowerment will enable them to imbibe knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills to impart education efficiently to children with various disabilities.

Moreover, this Foundation Course will serve as an Introductory Programme to those learners who are interested to develop professional expertise in the field of Special Education.  After this programme he/she, if a graduate, can join the B.Ed. Special Education Programme being offered jointly by IGNOU and RCI at the national level.

• The 86th Constitutional Amendment of India provides free and compulsory education for children until they complete the age of 14 years. It has also made “Education” as the fundamental right for children upto this age and this right has been further enhanced by four years for children with disabilities. 
• The National Policy on Education, 1986 made provision for the mildly and moderately disabled children to be placed for education in common settings. 
• Section 26 of The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, has made provisions for the appropriate governments and local authorities to ensure that every child with a disability has access to free education in an appropriate environment till he attains the age of eighteen years. Under Section 39 it also ensures that every school offers 3% seats to children with disability.
• In order to encourage inclusion of children with Disabilities, in the mainstream school systems, the Government of India introduced the scheme of Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) in 1974. 
• To give further impetuous to this approach, the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, Government of India, launched the Sarva Shikshya Abhiyan (SSA 2010) or “Education for All” to ensure entry, retention and education of children between 6-14 years of age including children with disabilities by 2010. SSA will ensure that every child with special needs, irrespective of the kind, category and degree of disability - is provided education in an appropriate environment.  SSA adopts ‘zero rejection’ policy so that no child is left out of the education systems. This scheme offers education to all the children including children with disabilities, through normal schools at their doorsteps and provides statutory provision of admission to disabled children in normal school and it also stresses that no elementary school in the country can deny admission to a child with any disability. Thus, it has become mandatory that at least one teacher from every elementary school in the country gets trained under the Foundation Course.
• Now the world has reset the goal to attain Education for All and Health for All by 2015 through its programmes of EFA 2015 and HFA 2015. 

India aims to become a developed country by 2020. Development in real sense means ‘Human Development’ because man is the initiator, means and end of development. In this context “Universalisation of Elementary Education” (UEE) will lay the foundation of development in the country. In order to create appropriate learning and teaching environment for successful inclusion of children with disabilities, in the mainstream schools, proper orientation of teachers and co-curricular staff to the unique learning needs of children with disability is a must.   The role of the teacher in an integrated/inclusive set up goes beyond the traditional role, as S/he has to facilitate proper coordination and management of related services and support systems required by the disabled children.  The teacher has to identify their educational needs and plan appropriate programmes for their effective participation in the curriculum and design appropriate methodologies. It has, therefore, become essential to sensitize the regular classroom teachers of the elementary schools in the country, at least one from each school so that they can meet the specific educational needs of the children with disabilities.

The principal objective of the programme is to develop required competencies of in-service teachers and enable them to:

• deal effectively with the various educational needs of children with disabilities;
• impart education effectively to students with various disabilities in the classroom;
• to undertake appropriate classroom management for children with disabilities;
• to undertake remedial or dual teaching for children with mental retardation and learning disabilities.

The Programme of the Foundation Course on Education of Children with Disabilities in Distance Mode will consist of 5 Blocks with 4 Blocks of Theory and 1 Block of Practical component as detailed below.

Block – 1        Introduction of Disability & Inclusive Education.

Unit 1:     Historical & Contemporary Perspectives. (Rights, Inclusion, Empowerment etc.)
Unit 2:     Nature and Needs (Definitions, Types of Disabilities, Causes, Functional Deficits etc.)
Unit 3:     Legislative Framework
Unit 4:     Inclusive Education Concepts & Practice.
Unit 5:     Government Schemes & Concessions

Block – 2        Early Identification, Assessment & Intervention.

Unit 1:     Early Childhood Development
Unit 2:     Early Identification & Assessment
Unit 3:     Early Intervention
Unit 4:     Role of Key Players.

Block – 3        Education of Children with Disabilities

Unit 1:     Understanding Educational Needs.
Unit 2:     Education Models.
Unit 3:     Curriculum Adaptation
Unit 4:     Teaching & Learning Material, Aids & Equipments
Unit 5:     Behaviour Management

Block – 4        Assistive Devices & Therapies

Unit 1:     Development of Adaptive Skills, Assistive Devices and Special Therapies for Children with Hearing Impairment
Unit 2:     Development of Adaptive Skills, Assistive Devices for Children with Visual Impairment
Unit 3:     Development of Adaptive Skills, Assistive Devices and Special Therapies for Children with Mental Retardation
Unit 4:     Development of Adaptive Skills, Assistive Devices And Special Therapies for Children with Locomotor Impairment, Cerebral Palsy And                  Spinal Injury
Unit 5:     Development of Adaptive Skills, Assistive Devices and Special Therapies for Children with Other Disabilities

Block – 5        Practical Training in Inclusive Education

Unit 1:     Case work on Identification and Assessment.

1. One case work each in Hearing Impairment, Visual Impairment and Mental Retardation and one case work in any other disability viz., Locomotor Impairment, Autism, Cerebral Palsy and Multiple Disability.
2. Submission of Case Record to the supervising faculty at the study center.

Unit 2:     Observation of Inclusive School

2.1    Barrier Free Environment
2.1.1    Physical and Structural Aspects.
2.1.2    Attitudinal and Social Aspects.
               2.2    Curriculum Adaptation
2.3    Co-curriculum Activities.
2.4    Teaching Style and Method.
2.5    Teaching & Learning Transaction.

Unit 3:     Practical Training on Assistive and Augmentative Devices and Methods.
3.1    Practical training in the area of Hearing Impairment.
3.2    Practical training in the area of Locomotor Impairfment
3.3    Practical training in the area of Mental Retardation.
3.4    Practical training in the area of Visual Impairment.
3.5    Practical training in the area of other disabilities.

Unit 4:     Community work
4.1    Awareness Campaign
4.2    Orientation program for grass root workers viz., anganwadi, health workers Panchayat members, parents.
4.3    Facilitation support in the area of escorting and transport, reading and recorder services, procurement and maintenance of assistive devices, remedial teaching, peer tutoring, etc.

Unit 5:     Practice Teaching
5.1    Two lessons in Hearing Impairment
5.2    Two lessons in Locomotor Impairment or any other Disabilities.
5.3    Two lessons in Mental Retardation
5.4       Two lessons in Visual Impairment

4.4       Duration

The programme will be of 3 months (90 days) duration including 3 weeks of Face-to-Face Contact Programme in two phases. There will be a Term End Examination after second contact programme. Each enrolled candidate will get a maximum of three chances to clear the examination after which he/she will be eligible to get the Certificate. In case the candidate can not clear the programme in three chances then he/she will have to enroll afresh.

4.5       Time Schedule of the Programme

In a Calendar Year the programmes would be offered thrice:
1st.                   Feb – Apr
2nd.                   Jun – Aug
3rd.                   Oct – Dec