AAKASH – a Project by VidyaArogya Trust in association with Alpha to Omega Learning Centre, ATOLC Chennai (www.alphatoomega.org) and supported by Govt. of Goa and Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, is organizing a 5 day Workshop – ‘Teaching Techniques for Children With Learning Difficulties- ATOLC Level-1 ‘from 8th to 12th October 2013, 10 am to 5 pm, at The Black Box, RavindraBhavan, Margao.
Ms. Lalitha Ramanujan, Director, Alpha to Omega Learning Centre, and Ms. Reena Bhonagiri shall be the faculty for the Workshop. Mr Bipin Kantak is the Director of Project Aakash.
Ms. LALITHA RAMANUJAN, Founder Director, Alpha to Omega Learning Centre, ATOLC Chennai, is the faculty for the workshop. She is the only Certified Trainer in India for Strategies Intervention Model – Kansas University Centre for Research on Learning, USA, and also the only Certified Trainer in India for Instrumental Enrichment Program – Standard & Basic – ICELP, Israel. She has conducted workshops/ Training programmes in various parts of India and abroad
The Workshop aims to spread awareness on the issues of Teaching Techniques and Education of Children with Learning Difficulties, and is oriented towards Teachers, Special Educators, Counselors, and Parents.
The Workshop is the ATOLC LEVEL 1 – covering the different topics like Recognizing under achievement, Informal assessment, Teaching techniques for reading and reading comprehension, spelling, fundamentals for written expression, LD and Arithmetic etc.
Children with Learning Difficulties need to be trained and equipped with academic and life skills to be independent and useful citizens of Society in an inclusive environment, and this is an ardent need of today’s competitive times.
The Goa Board of Education has a well formulated scheme for such students with various concessions including setting of separate exam papers.
The Governmentof Goa, Directorate of Education, grants special funds to schools to establish Resource Rooms equipped with staff trained to teach Children with Learning Difficulties.
With the enactment of the Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education Act, 2009, by Parliament, and The Goa Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules, 2012, inclusive education in mainstream schools is now an absolute legal right of Children with Learning Difficulties.
Inspite of these positives, there are very few takers for these opportunities provided by Goa Board due to various reasons including lack of awareness amongst parents, lack of appropriate infrastructure at school level including suitably equipped Resource Centres, and lack of availability of trained faculty for teaching such students.
Project AAKASH seeks to spread awareness of the cause of Children with Learning Difficulties, to promote the need to establish well equipped Resource Centres with trained faculty in mainstream schools as well as under Private initiatives supported by Government to complement the Government’s obligation to providing inclusive education to these Children thereby enabling the practical issues to be bridged so that the benefits of the Government’s policies and enactments of law are actually available to these Children.