Mangalayatan University

Special Education

Usha Martin University

The Special Education, also referred to as the Special Needs Education, is for providing necessary elementary education to children and students with certain intellectual impairments or learning disabilities. In this category of education the children are involved in certain planned teaching procedures, and are carefully monitored by a trained educator. Needs of some special instructional methodology (remedial instruction), repeated learning or speaking practices, learning-teaching aids and equipments, and instructional materials are most common in this special education to children with specific learning disabilities. These things are utilized for improving learning abilities of children with any one or more disabilities or hindrances. The most common of these disabilities are speech or language impairments; hearing impairments; mental retardation; visual impairments; emotional disturbance; autism; any health impairments; combined deafness and blindness; traumatic brain injury; and multiple disabilities.

The special education teachers work with such children, especially at the primary, middle, and higher secondary levels of the school education. Any person who wants to be a special education teacher, has to undergo any of the below-mentioned special education course, after the graduation or post-graduation in any stream. The institutes for special education in india, and the types of courses available, are listed below separately. Today, rich and efficient online special education courses are also available. All these courses are approved by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), which is a statutory body working under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. of India.

India Special or Exclusive Education Programs

India too has now come a long way in the sector of disability rehabilitation, and there are many governmental institutes and programmes, and private institutions in cities all across India, for offering a variety of special education programs at diverse levels. The National Education Policy on Education of 1986, also included a policy on disabilities under the Section-4.9. The special education courses (these courses train teachers to teach children with special needs) of these institutes are duly recognized by the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), the supreme body in India for regulation of courses for the education, training, and management of persons with disabilities. The special education institutes and varieties of special education courses, are listed below:
  • National Institute of the Visually Handicapped [NIVH], Dehradun
  • National institute for the Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH), New Delhi
  • National Institute for Orthopaedically Handicapped [NIOH], Kolkata
  • National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped [NIMH], Secunderabad
  • The Institute for Physically Handicapped, New Delhi
  • National Institute of Rehabilitation, Training and Research [NIRTAR], Cuttack
  • National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD), Chennai
  • IGNOU, New Delhi
  • Indian National Portage Association [INPA], Chandigarh
  • Shristi Child Development & Learning Institute, Delhi
The types of special education courses offered by these governmental and private institutes, can broadly be divided into the following categories:
  • Certificate in ECSE- Enabling Inclusion Cerebral Palsy
  • Diploma in Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE)
  • Diploma in Special Education (Cerebral Palsy)
  • Diploma in Special Education (Deaf and Hard of Hearing)
  • Diploma in Special Education (Mental Retardation)
  • Diploma in Special Education (Visual Impairment)
  • Diploma in Special Education (Autism Spectrum Disorder)
  • B. Ed-Special Education (Multiple Disabilities)
  • Post Graduate Diploma in Developmental Therapy: Multiple Disabilities (Physical & Neurological) (PGDDT)
  • Post Graduate Diploma in Early Intervention (PGDEI)
  • M. Phil (Clinical Psychology)