Minister of State for Tourism, Education, Technical Education, Culture, Horticulture, Floriculture and Parks Priya Sethi inaugurated the 40 character Braille Text Reading Machine for visually impaired children at the Resource Centre for Children with Special Need (CWSN) of SRML Higher Secondary School, today.The facility was inaugurated in the presence of State Project Director RMSA, SSA Saugat Biswas, Director School Education, Jammu Smita Sethi, State Coordinator IEDSS (SSA), T.R. Mangotra, Chief Education Officer, Jammu, J. K. Sudan, Principal, SRML, K. C. Khajuria and other faculty members.While speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that the government is committed to provide all required pre-requisite to specially abled children of the state and the Braille machine is a step in the direction to enable visually challenged students to learn using computers. She said that all required provisions would be made to ensure that latest IT based learning tools are provided to those children who have special needs.
“The challenged children are very much part of our society and we will ensure that equal opportunities of learning are made available to them,” she added.She also assured the faculty in general and students in particular about the smooth implementation of centrally sponsored schemes and also for better delivery of educational services. She exhorted upon the students to derive maximum benefits from such schemes for the development of a better teaching-learning process.The state-of-the-art machines are being supplied to all the district resource rooms as part of the Inclusive Education for Disabled at Elementary Level (IED) component of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA), a centrally sponsored scheme funded by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.Earlier, Saugat Biswas apprised the Minister regarding the utility of the new machine. Describing it as a path-breaking technology for the visually impaired he illustrated that the machine will enable the visually impaired students in reading and writing using computers. At the same time it will enable a user to take printouts of written material in Braille.
Using this system, the visually impaired students can read and write even without the supervision of a teacher and also read from material available on the internet.Faculty, specially the visually impaired students expressed their joy at the installation of the facility. Visually Impaired students felt connected to technology for the first time they said.The machines, a product of WEBEL Mediatronics Ltd., a government of West Bengal undertaking, shall be installed in all the districts, and the Resource Teachers will be trained adequately by the SSA, so that they can further impart training to the visually impaired students of the State, Biswas informed.