Pedro Poveda Special School, situated in the Taluk (town) of Honavar, Uttar Kannada district, Karnataka state, India was established in 1986, with the goal of responding to the needs of special education for mentally challenged children, living in rural areas. It is one of the projects managed by SARPI and is an educational center that cater to the needs of special children with intellectual disability. Since its foundation, it has attended to over 300 persons with special needs: children with autism, down syndrome, cerebral palsy, low intellectual capacity and even children with some degree of physical disability. The school strives to help these children to use their potential to the maximum extent and thus leading them towards a better quality of life with dignity and respect.
The programme of the school focuses on the training the children to reach independence in self-care- that they are able to take care of their basic needs. Also the school provides opportunities for the children to develop their social self in a safe, secure and loving milieu where the children feel cared for and accepted. One of the extraordinary features of the school is the personalized follow-up of each child from the moment they are accepted in the school that is done through a close collaboration with the parents and caregivers of the children.
Vision
To create a holistic learning atmosphere where the unique potentials of children and young adults with special needs are developed so as to allow them to be fully integrated in the society and providing them with a better world environment.
Mission
Assist children and young adults with special needs to have a happy and self-reliant life by creating conducive conditions and personalized approach for academic, social psychomotor and personality development, social graces, rehabilitation, vocational training and giving employment opportunities, thus, advancing and managing them toward a humane quality of life with dignity and rights
Global Developmental Objective
Pedro Poveda Special School’s main goal is to provide special education to mentally challenged children, to educate them in a school and home setting and enable them to reach their highest potentials through a personalized system of learning which promotes their total integration in the society.
Specific Objectives of the Project
To help develop the fullest potentials of the students with special needs, we aim to achieve the following goals and objectives:
- Providing early identification, intervention and interaction service for young intellectually challenged children, so that optimum benefit of utilization of capabilities and opportunities by these children with mental handicap, may occur.
- Further improving the quality of special education through more training of teachers on how to manage cases such as autism, hyper-activity, and other behavioral dysfunction.
- Strengthening basic education of specially-abled children and rehabilitating these through appropriate training directed towards the goal of enabling them to lead an independent life as much as possible
- Systematizing the vocational training of the children so as to promote their potentials engaging them in income generating activity and employment by the production and marketing of their products.
- Giving thorough parental education and proper child care to prevent having intellectually disabled children
- Further reinforcing the cooperation and collaboration between the school and the parents, both forming an educative community in order to support these children in their growth, development and integration in the society
- Continuously raising the consciousness in the families, the neighborhoods and the communities about the plights and needs of the special children
- Obtaining and making maximum use of benefits provided by the government through social welfare schemes, both for the individual child and the school
- Increasing the linkages and the network of Pedro Poveda Special School
- Continuously working towards the operational sustainability of Pedro Poveda Special School
Project Implementation and Management
The school provides special education in a school-based program and home-based program.
School-Based Program
- Academic, Social and Psychomotor Skills Development
- Occupational Skills Development
- Artistic Skills Development
- Exposure Program
- Computer Training
Home-based Program
- Identify children eligible for Home-based Education
- Increase emphasis on early identification and intervention services
- Provide individual support to special children and create awareness in the parents about the needs and potential of these children.
- Make families participate fully in all aspects of the planning, delivery, and evaluation of services and get closely involved in the entire process of home-based program
- Provide the child with the skills necessary for functions of daily living, , academics, communication, self-help etc so as to enhance their development on necessary prerequisite skills for mainstreaming
- Make accessible to children and families a comprehensive and well-coordinated array of services that address the children and families’ physical, emotional, social and special needs
- Make the home setting as the child’s learning environment for the basic activities of daily living
- Provide services in line with the linguistic needs, socio-cultural norms and values of each child and family
- Give individual counseling to parents regarding their child’s problems, care and management and progress, growth and development
Strategies for home-based education
- Counseling of parents/family members to remove misconceptions
- Training of family members in required skills
- Individualized goal setting for the child and role to be played by parents/ family
- Assessing and modifying skills of family members and special educators
- Seminar on different topics and issues are given to parents
- Regular home visits by the special educators
- Reporting and documentation of home visits
Activities that are conducted during the year
- Program on self-care, functional literacy, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, Communication skill, Vocational Training, etc.
- Parents Teachers meeting
- Awareness program in the villages
- Home visits of the students and other special children
- Exposure programs for the teachers and children
- Link with the Government Hospitals and offices
- Training to make products of the vocational section for the children
- Updating of the Staff: Seminar, workshops, talks
- Participation in the Special Olympics and other activities organized by the District and state level
- Medical checkup and follow up
- Celebrations of important events
- Different competitions to show their talents
- Close follow-up of the parent and children
- Organize sports and picnics for the children
- Vocational classes for the children
- Attending medical camps
- On-going formation and updating programs for the teachers