HASHU ADVANI COLLEGE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION EMPOWERING TEACHING LEARNING PROCESS STATE LEVEL CONFERENCE FOR TEACHERS OF THE DEAF (11TH &12TH June, 2012)

As per the disability related acts in India, teaching children with disability is a licensed activity which requires renewal of registration every five years. Rehabilitation council of India (Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India) is accountable for registration and renewal of the registration of all the teachers of the children with disabilities. This renewal of registration is carried out on the basis of credit points whereby, each registered teacher needs to collect 100 credit points every five years. Attending training programmes, workshops or conferences is one of the ways to collect credit points.

Most of the special teachers are extremely enthusiastic about updating their knowledge and skills through conferences and workshops. However, many a times it is noticed that, avenues for the teachers to update their skills and knowledge are not adequate. Also, many of the training programmes and conferences are urban oriented and in English. Considering the need to provide a platform for the special teachers of the students with deafness, Hashu Advani College of Special Education holds a state level conference in Marathi. The uniqueness of this conference is that it is held every year in the month of June – particularly on the first two days of reopening of the schools. This gives the teacher ample opportunity to gear up for the coming academic year. It also facilitates direct link between theory and practice. Teachers are exposed to new trends and classroom applications during the conference and hence they are made ready to carry out small experiments in their classrooms. Considering this, the Rehabilitation Council of India gives 10 credit points for attending the conference. The state welfare dept who is accountable for quality of special schools also announces these two days to be considered as ‘on duty’ working days for the participating teachers.

It is challenging to keep all the participants alert and involved for 6 to 7 hours at a stretch, particularly when the number of teachers is over 300. The sessions of the conference therefore, are highly interactive and all the resource persons go beyond the conventional lecture method. Power point presentations, roll play, open forum, audio visuals are used extensively. Moreover, participants are involved in tasks like checklists and team presentations so that each participant is kept in a loop of conference activities.

Keeping with its trend, this year, the college has organized a Sate Level Conference on 11th and 12th June. Every year this conference is held with one of the special schools as a strategic partner. This year the collaborative partner in this effort is Rochiram Thadani High School for Children with Hearing Impairment, Chembur, Mumbai. The conference with its central theme “Empowering teaching learning process”; will involve theory inputs , group discussions & open forums on multi-disciplinary topics like teaching learning process and Yog , concept of concept formation in children with hearing loss, communication options for children with hearing loss , matching learning style with teaching style, roping in parents of children with hearing loss; thereby enhancing the teaching learning process. The conference is expected to house almost 350 teachers of the students with deafness from all over Maharashtra.