Challenges before the Visually Challenged Teachers

Facing students on the first day in  school  for any teacher can be both exciting and  nervy , more so when  a visually challenged  teacher  stands in front of  a class of  sighted students . How are the students going to react and respond, how will he or she be able to cope with them,  some are confident, some nervous but it is a day they all look forward to. For some it remains etched in their memory

    “I remember the day very well as if it was yesterday.”   Says Pritam Sharma. It was the 5th of April 1988 and my very first class involved teaching ‘Alankars’ (figures of speech) to class VIII students. It was an interesting lesson to begin the class and the students were very responsive.”

     Born in a small village in Rajasthan to illiterate parents, Pritam Sharma after a long innings of twenty years of teaching in schools, is presently working as Assistant Professor in Ramjas College in Delhi.

        Mukesh Gautam who also had a long stint of teaching in schools recalls that he was quite tense on that day.

          “I was very tense when I first went to school to teach normal students. Shyness and inexperience made me skeptical, I was not sure what kind of reaction I was going to get. It was kind of an ‘adventure’ which is hard to explain. But I can say one thing for sure that the first day of my encounter with sighted students was the only day when I was low in confidence. Afterwards, I never suffered from this kind of syndrome.”

       For most  visually challenged teachers,  reaching higher levels of education  in our country even today  is by no means a mean task  specially in the face of acute  lack of  even the basic  tools  ,aids and facilities .

“And teaching sighted students can be even more challenging.”Says Kapil Kumar Mittal.

           A  PGT in political science  in  the Government Senior Secondary School Nathupura  in Delhi , visually challenged Kapil Kumar Mittal  says  the inability to have eye contact with the students  of class is  a  drawback for teachers like him  that one has to overcome.

 “It becomes more difficult in a class that has high number of students as it is not easy to move about in the class because there is hardly any space in between the desks. As a consequence some times more responsive and active students tend to get more attention.” He says.

Kapil Kumar says  if the number of students in a class is as per the RTE norms and sitting arrangements  allow visually challenged to  freely move in the class room  to reach every student , the handicap of eye contact could be  easily overcome .

 “We may not be able to make eye contact but that does not mean any student can cheat us. It is not difficult for us to recognize each and every student through their voice and know where they are sitting. We only have  to keep on asking questions  to know whether they are attentive or not and that makes up for not being able to see  the expression on the face  of students, says Khem Chand Sharma,  the Vice Principal of GBSSS school Palam village .”

  “Disability is not a factor in controlling a class. It depends upon the teachers own initiative and ability.” He says.

             Most teachers feel that it is not the disability but lack of proper infrastructure and aids for visually challenged teachers at both the school and college level of teaching, that is an area of concern. Mukesh Gautam who is now Assistant Professor in Gargi College says it is lack of these basic facilities that makes the situation difficult for visually challenged.

    “Books in accessible format, computers, with screen reader and proper facility for conducting research are necessary. If government makes it mandatory for every college and school to have these facilities, it will automatically create an environment that is positive and conducive for the blind teachers to teach.”

      Khem Chand Sharma  who taught political science  when he was a PGT says  that e-books are  now available  and several  ‘visually challenged friendly’  soft ware  have come up  but the question how many teachers specially in villages can access them.  

He says that apart from lack of facilities, attitude  of the people is also an issue.

          “In college students are much more knowledgeable, mature and understanding. But in school sometimes staff is not cooperative. Either they do not want to give work to visually impaired teachers or lack of awareness about the capabilities of visually challenged makes them behave in a very unwanted manner.”

     “It is the unresponsive environment that makes our task more difficult.” He says.

        Harish Kumar Gulati who is the vice principal of a RSBV Jheel Khuranja school in the capital admits that acceptability by the staff is a major problem . He says   the lack of acceptance by sighted colleagues is disappointing.  

     “It is the lack of awareness about the capabilities of the visually challenged, lack of acceptance by superiors and colleagues and lack of confidence in teachers like us that can be very demoralizing.”

   While the lack of facilities, uncooperative environment can be frustrating there are occasions that keeps alive the   self confidence and hope for many of them.  

      For the visually challenged Pritam Sharma, the most satisfying and proud moment in his teaching career was when all the students of the 10th and 12th class   he taught passed the board exams. A hundred per pass percentage for any teacher is something he or she aspire for, more so for visually challenged for whom the challenges of teaching the sighted students are enormous.

          It is not just about teaching, it is also the attitude he says,   what really moved him was the response of the students when he met with an accident.

 “As soon as they heard about my accident, the entire class – all 53 students of class 7 – left school to visit me in the hospital.”

    Mukesh too was overwhelmed when two two years back some of his students came to ask him about their future plans.  He asked them to go to more experienced teachers.

“I felt on top of the world when they told me that they like my way of teaching and they valued my guidance. As a teacher that was the most precious gift I could get from my students.”

   Khem Chand Sharma too says that he feels nice when students where he had taught earlier get in touch with him and seek his guidance.

     They all feel that spreading awareness about the visually   challenged can help create a better environment for them to work.

  “We can generate awareness among our colleagues through our performance. We need to give more than 100 percent to make our place in the society.”

“It is attitude of the society that makes the especially abled, disabled. Therefore, change in the attitude of society can give desired results and it can only be achieved through hard work, patience and performance. The task is difficult but not impossible. Moreover, generating sensitivity is not enough; we should focus more on creating our deserving place in the society and availability of necessary material aids and technological support that can enhance our ability.”  Says Mukesh Gautam. Out of the three per cent job reservation for the disabled, one per cent he meant for the visually challenged. This has helped many visually challenged teachers get jobs in government schools and colleges .More recently in the  Union Budget 2014-15  the government announced that  15 new Braille presses will be set up  and ten  10 existing ones will also be revived. This will no doubt help in making more books available in Braille and benefit the visually challenged. However as many of the visually teachers pointed out, a lot more remains to be done to give proper environment and necessary aids and facilities so that they are able to give their hundred per cent to the job of teaching.



-Ms. Sarita Brara

source:PIB