The Hindu              19.12.2013

Corporation schools to admit more differently abled children

Staff Reporter

Soon 10 corporation schools here will implement steps to admit more differently abled students.

The Avinashilingam University is among the eight institutions — four each in India, and the U.S. — to bag the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiate Project that aims at enhancing the opportunities to include children with disabilities in general education. ‘A Sustainable Response to Intervention (RTI) Model for Successful Inclusion of Children with Disabilities — A India-U.S. Partnership’ is worth Rs. 1.5 crore. The Department of Special Education of the four universities here will collaborate with the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, the U.S., for implementing the project.

Coimbatore Mayor S.M. Velusamy launched the project here on Tuesday.

Brian Abery, head of the project, addressed the participants through video chat, and explained how project was being implemented in the U.S. schools. He expressed the hope that the schools in Coimbatore would be able to effectively adapt the system.

Sheela Ramachandran, Vice-Chancellor of the university and project director, said that the RTI was a systematic process to help teachers tailor their institution to students who needed intervention in four phases. The implementation would be done by a team with G. Victoria Naomi, Associate Professor, and Premavathy Vijayan, Head, Department of Special Education, as the coordinators. P. Santhana Krishnan, Director, Research and Consultancy, is the project consultant.

A questionnaire will be provided to representatives of corporation schools to get information about their institutions.

After which, 10 schools will be selected to imoplemetn the project.

After training, coordinators would, in turn, train the teachers of the selected schools. The schools will be monitored for three years.

The Hindu              19.12.2013

‘Isha Foundation buildings constructed without approval’

Staff Reporter

Official makes submission before First Bench

The Deputy Director of Town and Country Planning, Coimbatore region, has submitted before the Madras High Court that Isha Foundation constructed buildings at Ikkaraibolluvappatty village, without any valid approval from competent authority.

The official made this submission before the First Bench headed by Chief Justice R.K. Agrawal, who was hearing on a PIL filed by M. Vetri Selvan, an advocate who had sought a court order for demolishing all the “unauthorised buildings” constructed by the foundation in the village in Coimbatore district.

School

In his counter, K. Sabapathy, Deputy Director of Town and Country Planning said, “The Isha Foundation has neither obtained approvals from the District Collector, nor obtained the concurrence of the Deputy Director of Town and Country Planning as required provisions of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Building Rules 1997. It has not obtained clearance from Hill Area Conservation Authority, the foundation constructed 62 building blocks which are in use and 15 building blocks are being constructed without any valid approval from the competent authority. The school in question is being run in one of the constructed buildings. Hence, lock and seal demolition notice was issued last December.”

The official added that a proposal of foundation for approvals for the construction of buildings was returned in last January.