Children with disabilities in the northeast may hope for quality education with the launch of a project aimed to provide inclusive and quality teaching for them.

Regional Action on Inclusive Education in North East (RAISE–NE) has been launched in five states of the region, including Assam, to complement the programme of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) on inclusive education to improve the quality of education for children with disabilities, RAISE–NE’s Project Director Bibhudutta Sahu said.

The project will focus on selected government or government–supported schools in select districts of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura.

The primary aim of the project is to ensure that the identified model schools should be made accessible to children with disabilities and that their evaluation should be flexible according to the progress of the child.

"A child should not be a problem for the school but it is the school which needs to adapt to the need of each child. All children should be part of an inclusive education," Sahu added.

The project’s ultimate aim is to stop special schools for differently–abled children as these provide education within a very limited ambit and only in the case of a child suffering from severe disabilities should they be sent to special schools, he said.

RAISE–NE has identified some lead organisations as partner organisations with six each in Assam, Manipur and Nagaland, four in Meghalaya and three in Tripura, Sahu said.

In Assam, five districts—Jorhat, Kamrup, Sonitpur, Bongaigaon and Dibrugarh—have been selected for the project and the process to identify the schools for implementation of the project was on, he added.

The partner organisations have been selected to provide technical support to selected government or SSA schools for inclusive education and to help in capacity building of teachers for teaching children with disabilities.

Besides, the partner organisations will also regularly monitor the selected schools and promote more inclusive model schools, Sahu added.

"Our primary focus as a partnership organisation will be to ensure quality infrastructure and accessibility of children with disabilities to quality education," Diba Nahim, Coordinator of Shishu Sarothi, partner organisation for Assam’s Kamrup district said.

Ensuring ramps and accessible toilets, enhancing capacities of teachers and providing support to teachers in drafting the curriculum and evaluation methodology are the key-areas on which Shishu Sarothi will focus, Nahim added.

Activities to be conducted under the RAISE-NE include building capacity of partner organisation for inclusive education, enhancing teacher competence, advocacy for attitude change among all stakeholders and documenting and disseminating innovative approaches and good practices.

Assam SSA Mission Director Thaneswar Malakar said the state government welcomes intervention leading to changes and they should be consulted for any information or initiatives.

The SSA would provide permission to visit SSA schools, conduct required activities and provide logistic support.

The project is supported by three international agencies—Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM), Light for the World and Liliane Fonds, all of whom have major presence in the northeast.

Besides, providing funds for the project, the agencies are also involved as strategic think-tank for the project.