IED - Second Innings

Though the country has witnessed a phenomenal expansion of educational opportunities during the post-Independence period the children with disability have not really benefited from this growth. Though the Government of India has given special attention for the  primary education of this group, in order to achieve the goal of education for all, the coverage and impact of this process is not very high. The NGO sector has been a strong partner in facilitating the efforts of the Government particularly in Integrated Education for the Disabled Children (IEDC) The program Integrated Education for the Disabled Children (IEDC) provides educational opportunities for the disabled children in civic schools, to facilitate their inclusion and mainstreaming in the school system and social life.
Samarthanam as an NGO has been regularly facilitating this activity for children with disabilities to be integrated in general schools as part of the IED program since 2001. This year the government unfortunately has stopped the grants for the IED program but Samarthanam commitment to primary education of the disabled stands. Samarthanam in partnership with the Axis Bank Foundation, Mumbai, is taking the initiative to continue the program. The total cost of the project is expected to be around 82 lakhs per annum and the Axis Bank Foundation has committed 42 lakhs year after year for the next five years to support the program.
Samarthanam is expanding the IED program to the project areas like Kolar district along with Bangalore, covering 200 students and 350 students respectively.  Samarthanam plans to recruit specialized trained and motivated teachers to execute the IED program .As a process it had called through the media for trained teachers to work for the program-1st phase 20 teachers in Kolar and 15 in Bangalore respectively. 

As a part of the recruitment process 19 candidates attended the selection process which has three tier processes. The first step was a written test on the topic 'The necessary and sufficient conditions for the successful execution of the IED'. The next step was group discussion on "teaching in IED and its effective implementation.
The next step in the whole process was the personal interview where all the candidates were interviewed by a Panel lead by  Mr. PKM Swamy National Director- Advocacy, Ms Vasanthi Savanur Trustee ,Mr. Vernekar Director Vidyaprasad, Mr. Devaraj IED Project manager, Mr Nagaraj Manager- Innovations and Mr. G Ravi  Manager - Communications.  Samarthanam will inform the successful candidates once the scores will have been collated.