Shafaqat Special School, near Hajj House Srinagar, is one of the three initiatives of the Voluntary Medicare Society (VMS), which prepares disabled children for a normal life.
Shafaqat Special School has been in the existence for the past 18 years has shown the way.
The VMS was founded by Dr Maqbool Mir, former head of department of ENT, Government Medical College, in 1971. He also laid the foundation of Shafaqat Special School in 2000.
At present, the school has 70 children with disabilities on rolls, 20 of them for inclusive education.
About 2048 children have been examined at the society’s OPD.
Shafaqat School runs on donations. On an average, it costs Rs 6000 per child on special training, inclusive education, vocational training, speech and audiology, and transport facilities, etc.
High costs and little donations are preventing the management from taking in more children, said principal Shafaqat Special School Dr Ayoub Bhat.
Also, there are space constraints. There are only 12 classrooms and fewer staffers. Only five to six children are accommodated in each class because they need individual attention.
“Infrastructure building depends on donations. The more people donate the more we will be able to reach out to more special children,” he said.
Children from other districts who cannot attend the institute daily visit the school once a week. Their parents are provided training on how to take care of their children’s special needs.
“If we receive a sizable number of disabled children from any district then we do camps in that district for a day or two which again largely depends on the availability of finances,” Bhat said.
The school has an Inclusive School, where children with physical disabilities receive training. It is the first Inclusive school in the state to mainstream the children having mild intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities with normal children.
It also has a school for visually impaired, which is in its infancy at present and provides mobility training for the visually impaired.
The VMS plans one of the biggest schools for special children in north India. A five-story building is under construction, which will accommodate 300 children, Dr Ayoub said. On its completion, the school will have hostel facilities for children from remote areas.
