72 lakh teachers trained to use technology to identify students with disabilities

In a nationwide outreach covering up to 60,000 schools and 72 lakh teachers, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has trained teachers to identify children with probable disability conditions using PRASHAST, a school-based screening tool.

“Department of School Education has been conducting continuous sensitisation of general teachers on inclusive education through PRASHAST for the past three months,” a senior Ministry official said.

PRASHAST is a digital tool to help identify children with 21 disability conditions listed under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016. “Many of these conditions are not easily identifiable, especially those without visible symptoms, as schools often lack systematic tools to identify such needs early,” the official added.

Checklists for teachers, special educators

The tool’s two-part checklist enables teachers to screen students based on observable indicators, while special educators validate cases and facilitate referrals for medical assessment, wherever required.

The first part of the checklist is for regular teachers to screen students on observable behaviours such as movement, vision, hearing, speech, learning, behaviour, and social interaction, among others. For instance, teachers must observe if a student has difficulty in moving, or experiences numbness in limbs, slurred speech, a shorter height than is usual for their age, is an acid attack survivor, or holds a book too close or too far while reading. Other parameters include students facing difficulties in reading, misplacing a line, or omitting words, avoidance in engaging in activities requiring visual focus like reading or copying from blackboard, stammering, writing reverse letters, or unexplained and excessive bleeding from injuries.