Against the depressing backdrop of a mere 0.89 percent of India’s 1.4 million primary-secondaries providing education to children with special needs, the Delhi-based Tamana School of Hope is ranked India’s #1 special needs school for the third consecutive year
Given this depressing backdrop, this year’s national league table ranking the country’s most admired special needs schools — introduced in 2015 with the objective of enabling parents of children with special needs to make informed choices as also to acknowledge the nation’s pioneer special needs schools — is encouraging in that the number of sufficiently well-known ranked schools has risen from 16 in 2015 to 22 in 2017.
To compile the third EW Special Needs Schools Rankings 2017-18, C fore field researchers interviewed 514 knowledgeable respondents including parents and special needs educators. The schools were rated on ten parameters — teacher welfare and development, competence of faculty, quality of programme, rehabilitation, co-curricular education, individual attention to students, leadership/management quality, safety and hygiene, infrastructure provision and value for money.
The #1 position in the EW Special Needs Schools Rankings 2017-18 is retained for the third consecutive year by Tamana Autism Centre — School of Hope, Delhi (estb.1992), which is also top ranked on four parameters (competence of faculty, quality of programme, leadership/management quality, infrastructure provision). The second and third rankings are awarded to the Delhi-based Amar Jyoti, Delhi (estb.1981) and Asha Kiran Special Needs School, Bangalore (estb.1993) also for the third consecutive year. Moving up a notch since last year (4) and tied at #3 this year is The Aditya Birla Integrated School, Mumbai. The Top 5 table in this category is completed by the S.P.J. Sadhana School, Mumbai #4 (5) followed by Sparsh Special School, Delhi #5 (6) tied with the hitherto unranked Muskaan, Delhi.
Comments Dr. Shayama Chona, former principal of Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram (Delhi) where she served for 35 years (1978-2009) and founder-president of Tamana: “It is a great privilege to be ranked #1 for the third consecutive year. I consider this an award for our hard working children who constantly motivate and inspire us. Since inception, Tamana has strived to bring cutting-edge technology into educating special children. Our well-equipped research and development wing, which relentlessly works towards developing ‘miracle tools’ has not only earned recognition but changed the lives of thousands of special needs children. We are grateful to our research partners — IBM Research, Microsoft, Deakin University, Australia, University of Tampere, IIT-Delhi, NIOS Research, ministry of social justice among others — for their sustained support. Our prime objective is to prepare special needs children for mainstream education. I hope through our efforts, we will continue to inspire individuals and organisations to promote similar institutions.”
Dr. Vandana Sharma, a postgraduate in applied psychology of Annamalai University with a doctorate from Dr. Bheemrao Ambedkar University, Agra, and founder-principal and director of MBCN, Noida, which offers free-of-charge education and vocational training to 1,000 students, is gratified by the school’s Top 10 national ranking. “This award is very encouraging for our highly-qualified team of special educators, psychologists and therapists. It will motivate us to improve and deliver the best pedagogies and development programmes leveraged by the latest technology to special children. We also work towards empowering rehabilitation professionals, care givers and parents by conducting workshops and counselling sessions. So far, our students have been successfully placed in Tata Westside, Lemon Tree Hotels, Wave Infract, DS Group, and Genesis Global School,” says Sharma.
Founded 18 years ago by the Ponty Chadha Foundation Trust (formerly known as Mata Bhagwanti Chadha Niketan Trust), MBCN is a charitable school for children with intellectual and physical challenges, autism, speech and hearing impairment among other disabilities.
Paromita Sengupta
To view Special Needs Schools Rankings 2017, please visit: http://www.educationworld.in/rank-school/all-cities/special-needs-school/2017.html