MoU Signed To Strengthen Inclusive Education Of Blind Students

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with international development organization ‘Sightsavers’ on Wednesday with a view to strengthen the inclusive education of blind and low vision students in Odisha.

Throwing light on the objectives of the agreemet, state programme head of Sightsavers Akbar Mehfuz Alam said, “Sightsavers will provide technical support to OPEPA in strengthening the mainstream education of blind and low vision children studying in general schools across the state. Sightsavers will also provide technical support in disability effect management, low vision assessment, plus curriculum and special skills development among visually impaired students and capacity building of resource teachers and classroom teachers towards quality education delivery for the children with special needs.”

The project while targeting approximately 25, 000 visually impaired students will also promote enabling environment at schools for approximately 1.3lakh students with special needs currently enrolled in general schools of the state, he added.

OPEPA State Project Director Bhupendra Singh Poonia said, “Odisha government is committed towards the quality education of children with special needs (CWSN) for the fulfillment of universalization of education. He said the MoU with Sightsavers will support state inclusive education programme to bring quality and crosscutting perspectives to the existing efforts of the state SSA programme.

CEO, Sightsavers RN Mohanty highlighted that the organization is working with different state governments on quality, accessibility and learning outcome aspects of inclusive education. The MoU will contribute to the state’s goal towards providing quality education for the CWSN and fulfill its mandate towards the call for universalization of education.