Special Needs Education Kilinochchi Education Zone has 21 special education units with more than 200 students with special needs. In 2019, SJC87 INITIATIVE sponsored Five autism experts from South Asian Autism Awareness Centre (SAAAC) in Toronto, Canada to do an initial assessment and to come up with a comprehensive plan for special needs education. The next step would be to implement the recommendations set by SAAAC.
Following are some of the challenges in Special Needs Education in the Kilinochchi District identified by the SAAAC team
1. Inadequate Teacher Training
2. Lack of standardization / Uniformity
3. Teaching with narrow conceptualization of intelligence
4. Other challenges
- Transportation challenges
- Poverty and unemployment
- Multiple children with disabilities
- Comorbidities
- Females with special needs
Following are some of the recommendations by the SAAAC team:
1. Curriculum development for special education teachers
2. Educational Assistant Development
3. Special Education policy development for the Kilinochchi District
Currently we are doing the following:
Providing teaching assistants to Special Needs Education classes where the student/ teacher ratio is high. Providing nutritious meals to the 200+ special needs students 3 times per week.
We provide sponsorship for three categories of students. Namely, school students up to GCE Ordinary Level, school students in GCE Advanced Level and University students.
We work with schools and Education Zones to get basic infrastructure and educational facilities in place so that student learning can happen in a better environment.
Kilinochchi district in SriLanka has 21 Special Education units taking care of more than 200 Special needs children. We provide assistance to these children and the schools.
Purpose of ICT projects is to provide ICT facilities to schools so that they can use them as a tool to engage students in leaning and to extend the learning beyond classroom walls