::: Welcome to Astha ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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Astha has recently undertaken a project titled ‘A fun approach to learning for disabled as well as non disabled children’.
It is a project to develop an interactive educational CD that can be used by all children in the age group of 8 to 12 years. The objectives of the CD are:

	To provide information on places of interest in the capital city of India.
	To sensitize children to accessibility issue.

The CD will take the children on a journey to five of the most exciting places in Delhi in a Magic bus. By exploring the

magic bus and visiting the places with “Krazee Konductor- KK’, children will learn about places and about the importance of access.
The project is funded by Adobe Systems India Pvt Ltd. and facilitated by Charties Aid Foundation, CAF India. The CD is developed by Splash! Communications. The CD will be shortly out in the market for sale.

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION

Under our Project ‘Inclusive Education’, funded by Action Aid, we focused on education of various vulnerable groups that are still not completely in the schools. Many meetings and Focus Group Discussions were conducted with community (parents, children both regular and disabled) and schools to understand the perception of their perception about education, school system, inclusion, and their needs related to it.

It was found that all children irrespective of gender, caste, and religion, all children are enrolled in the schools.

Government Schemes and provisions have been one of the enabling factors for sending in children to schools, along with parents’ increased awareness level.

But still, majority of disabled children are still out of mainstream schools. This is the only category primarily seen out of schools. The main reason found to be was the concern that children with disability would find it difficult to cope at the regular schools, they need special care and attention which would not be available at regular government schools.

Barriers were found at all the three levels, i.e., home, school as well as society, which have resulted in early dropouts. Some barriers that came up from the community were -schools being far away, no proper transport facilities, Security on roads and in schools, improper infrastructure at schools, lack of facilities in schools, inappropriate home environment etc.

However, schools’ find the main reason for dropouts is when children go on long vacation to their village, that time though re-admission are done, but many drop out. Another reason is children’s poor performance.

They find that still many children have not reached schools, with disabled children being at the top because it is not easy for parents to take their disabled child to the schools. Then other categories of children who are out of schools are those who have illiterate

parents and those who go back to villages frequently for long durations.

These meetings would take a larger form wherein the community people would be linked to the schools and the Government, to voice out their concerns directly to the Government. A report would be compiled soon to share the enablers and barriers found for Inclusive Education, based on this research project.

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