Rajya Sabha clears amended RTE bill, kids with disability to get benefits


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Apr 25, 2012, 04.46AM IST

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Bill, making it possible for differently abled children to get benefits under the legislation. The amended law will also provide children with severe disability an option of receiving education at home.

Children with cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism and multiple disabilities will also be "explicitly" covered under the amended law.

Moving the amendment bill for consideration, HRD minister Kapil Sibal said it would provide the right to receive home-based education to children with severe disabilities. "It is a historic piece of legislation and will have a huge impact on quality education to children between classes 1 and 8 in the 6-14 age group. The bill will change the way we look at education," he said.

Winding up the debate on the bill, Sibal said he shared the concerns of members against use of the word "disability". He hoped that concerns of members would be automatically addressed in the RTE Act once the social justice ministry amends laws to include some more categories under the definition of disability.

Referring to one of the provisions of the RTE Act under which all schools except unaided minority ones will provide free education to children from deprived sections, Sibal said the government will adequately contribute to these schools.


He said the government's contribution would be to the tune of Rs 6,000 to Rs 19,000 per student per annum. "There are 80-90% of private schools whose annual tuition fees are less than Rs 19,000 and less than the contribution made by the Centre," he said. The Act provides 25% reservation for students of disadvantaged sections in classes.

It also provides for establishing school management committees to prepare school development plan. However, the school management committee in respect of minority institutions will function only in an advisory capacity.

After passing of the amendment bill unanimously, the Upper House also took up for consideration the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Amendment Bill which seeks to extend the period for mandatory increase of seats in such institutions from over a maximum period of three years to six years.
The legislation, which came into effect in 2007, is meant for reservation in admission for students belonging to SC, ST and OBC to the extent of 15%, 7.5% and 27% respectively in certain central educational institutions -- established, maintained or aided by the central government.

My Take: I am personally not in agreement with certain provisions like Giving free seats for children from the economically lower segments. Not because iam against them studying but because i am worried about the psychological scarring that they may have to put up with for the rest of their life. I think the funds can be channalised to improve the conditions of the existing Govt and municipal schoold so that these children can avail of all facilities like in unaided schools. (AND THIS IS POSSIBLE).
As far as the specially abled are concerned, i applaud the efforts on the part of the Govt and hope the ball gets rolling and the  Act actually sees the light of the day!

Hearing aids for Senior citizens.... Need for a reality check!

 Usually senior citizens sufferring from hearing loss have a common complaint. " I can hear u but cant make out what ur saying", " dont increase the volume (speaker or TV) ... my ears ache" "I cannot tolerate loud sounds.... "

 Some who have been using hearing aids complain, " its a waste of money. i cant make out anything..", " the noise is irritating and i get a headache". Very often these hearing aids are discarded. Of all my senior citizen clientele that were aided before about 90% of them had rejected their hearing aids.
What goes wrong?

• The first fault lies in testing itself. Many people go for 'fitting' hearing aids (usually to distributors) without doing a hearing test or an audiogram. How on earth can the fitting be done?
• It is very important that a complete audiometry which includes an audiogram and speech audiometry be performed on the client. Also the tolerance levels can be checked. Speech discrimination scores are particularly needed if the person has "clarity" issues.
• Many people do not use ear moulds (when needed).
• Due to financial reasons amny senior citizens compromise on the quality of hearing aids. For instance, a programmable hearing-aid will give better clarity than non-programmable ones but they do come at a cost. These days there are good programmabble aids which are reasonable. One must ask the audiologist for the same.
• A very important factor is "realistic expectations" from hearing aids. The end user should be told about what is to be expected after the fitting.

A point to draw home: Senior citizens with hearing loss usually suffer from nerve deafness which makes it imperative that their hearing aid fitting be accurate considering different factors and more importantly the outcome expectation should be 'realistic'....

Autistic Spectrum.......

Autism Awareness

I saw this little child all of 2yrs 2 m, who was reffered for lack of "speech". It dint take long to see that he demonstrated features of Autism (apparantly mild). tHe reason i am mentioning it here, is because this child has a history of G6- PD deficient anemia, when he was a few months old. Though health wise he is now better, i was wondering if the features of autism were in anyway linked to the genetic disorder. According to wikipedia, Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency is an X-linked recessive hereditary disease characterised by abnormally low levels of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (abbreviated G6PD or G6PDH), a metabolic enzyme involved in the pentose phosphate pathway, especially important in red blood cell metabolism. G6PD deficiency is the most common human enzyme defect.^[1] Individuals with the disease may exhibit nonimmune hemolytic anemia in response to a number of causes, most commonly infection or exposure to certain medications or chemicals.

But what is important now is Immediate commence ment of Sensori integration (occupational ) therapy, Followed a little later by Speech-language therapy. Ideally he should progress well. But only time will tell. In this case it is also vital that proper genetic counselling be done particularly if the parents wish to go in for a second issue.
Good luc to the kiddo.
(pic courtesy: Parenting4tomorrow.com)

Earmolds: Practical Considerations to Improve Performance in Hearing Aids | September 2009 | The Hearing Review | Hearing Review Products

Wonderful article. A must read for audiologists.

Earmolds: Practical Considerations to Improve Performance in Hearing Aids | September 2009 | The Hearing Review | Hearing Review Products

Hearing aid batteries:


Zinc-air button batteries use highly caustic potassium hydroxide as the electrolyte, which causes severe burns when exposed to delicate tissue, as the batteries have vent holes in them to extract oxygen from the atmosphere to use as part of... the battery chemistry.
In fact, the 24/7 National Button Battery Hotline (202-625-3333) was established over 20 years ago by the industry specifically for cases like these. It's also the reason why hearing aids have tamper-proof battery compartments, to keep kiddies out.

This information was shared by a good friend and a fellow audiologist.
Whenever we as audiologists instruct ppl about batteries we forget these little important things.

Three important points to drive home:

1. Keep hearing aids out of reach of children and pets!
2. Do not keep hearing aids very cose to or on any electronic item.
3. Do not leave batteries loose...... If its done with then discard it.

Noise hazards......

(also read earlier blog: Noise...... Beware!)

Noise Induced Deafness........ partial though!!

   I wonder if its a co-incidence, but For teh last 3 weeks continuously, i have seen clients reporting with the complaint of unable to hear soft sounds.... especially amidst murmurs (like in offices). Typically follwing were the complaints:

• Unable to 'make out' what the speaker just said... though i heard it.
• Unable to follow speech while i drive.
• unable to follow speech when there is background noise (even though its not loud)
• Unable to follow speech if i dont lip read..... especially if its a woman talking!!
• difficult to follow conversation in board meetings.

All these guys were holding very good positions in their fields but the hearing problem was interfering in their lives. The audiogram was something like the following:
 It is to be observed that the hearing thresholds are normal till about 1000Hz but then on the thresholds dip mainly at 4000Hz. (Normal thresholds are upto 25 dB across all frequencies.

Indepth analysis of their heariing habits revealed, ALL OF THEM SPENT MOST OF THEIR WAKING HOURS ON THEIR CELL PHONES FOR THE LAST FEW YEARS.... MAINLY IN THE LAST 2 YRS!!

Phew..... 400-500 calls a day, occasionally on handsfree listening to music..

Not just these individuals but, i see so many young adults glued to their cell phones all the time....... either chattingor listening to music. At times the music played is so loud that even the neighbouring guy hears it!!

When this happens habitually, medically we are damaging our ears. The area which is damaged first is sensitive to high frequency hearing...... so that accounts for the typical audiogram seen above. If not curtailed, then eventually all the frequencies shall dip and the hearing loss will progress.

 

Point to drive home: The next time you feel tempted to use that handsfree or have long chats over

the mobile phone....... u know what to do!!

LEARNING DISABILITY (LD)

HI all.
whenever we admit our kids to school, we undergo a sense of euphoria... In bollywood style, "padh-likhkar badaa aadmi banega" and so on and so forth. Usually the school years pass by quickly even b4 we actually realize it!!
But what happens when there is a stumbling block? What happens if ur child is unable to study (not because he doesnt want to).... is subjected to humiliation in class and back at home? Well its time we have a reality check.
Aamir Khan had popularised Learning disability via his movie 'tare zameen par'. The young Ishaaan in the movie was the butt of jokes and ridicule till he was intervened.....


But such awareness is just a small beginning. We have a long way to go. Early diagnosis of children is the key to successful rehabilitation of children with LD.



(read more on Understanding and Supporting Learning Difficulties



by: Ms Areena Loo, Bridge Learning)


I had this child all of 8 yrs visiting me for a complete evaluation. He presented a picture.... he was smart, witty and quick to respond to any query abt anything under the sky.He apparently was very good in sports!  But when it came to reading and writing skills, he showed classic symptoms of LD. His shocked mother only said " why dint anyone tell me about this problem while i kept reprimanding him for his studies?"
It is surprising that though we ve come a long way since the establishment of Maharashtra Dyslexia Association, many school teachers, principals and peadiatricians and far from being aware of signs and symptoms of LD.

The catch here is the school boards (SSC, CBSE and ICSE) accept only reports from SIOn and Nair hospital and they inturn do not assess a child without a refferal letter from school! Most school principals whom i ve come across in my career DO NOT give any such letter and the child is left to fend for himself. Some manage by attending therapies and remedial education, but the severely afftected suffer the most due to apathy of a few.
Its time we wake up. Lets look around us. Most children with LD ve poor attention span  and are very distracted. They sometimes ve history of delayed motor milestones. These are red flags and an alert teacher or parent can make the most of it and prevent further debilitating effects.
PLEASE BE ALERT!



18-4-12

REcent updtae from the child:
As expected the school 'refused' to give a letter for his official diagnosis to the hospital, which now refuses to conduct evaluation. Occupational therapy assessment is done with and LD (with some features of ADHD......quite common)  is confirmed. His therapy has been initiated, but he needs help, i.e the facilities provided by the board.
My question to these schools, ' Why is the letter not given to the child? Its his right to ve a proper education.' There are very negligible schools for slow learners and those with scholastic backwardness...... where do these kids go, if the schools where they r in doesnt support them. I know that there r false positive cases too but most of these children are innocent victims and targetted for no fault of theirs. Why do they ve to suffer humiliation in class just because they ve some perception problems making reading and writing difficult for them?
AWARENESS is the need of the hour. ACCEPTANCE...... first by the parents then teachers and then classmates (through teachers) is very important, if the chld with LD has to have a normal school life.
I hope better sense prevails.