IITM, MDA''s free online teacher training course to support special children now available on SWAYAM Prabha TV channels

Indian Institute of Technology Madras - NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning) has been collaborating with Madras Dyslexia Association (MDA) to offer a free online teacher training programme to ‘Provide Remedial Support to Children with Specific Learning Difficulties.’

This course titled ‘Remedial Instructions for Primary School Children with Specific Difficulties’ is now available on the ‘SWAYAM Prabha’ Television Channels of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. This training program has been made available in digital format so that distances and other such infrastructural resources do not pose as barriers.

This course is being broadcast between July 26, 2020, and August 4, 2020. Detailed Schedule of broadcasts is available on the website: https://www.swayamprabha.gov.in/

This course is intended to help children with Specific Learning Difficulties (Dyslexia). The gap between their potential and the actual performance is perhaps the only manifestation of the hidden, neurological condition-dyslexia.

Speak about the benefits of this initiative, Prof. K. Mangala Sunder, Head, Department of Chemistry, IIT Madras, and Channel Coordinator, SWAYAM Prabha, said, “DTH SWAYAM Prabha is an ideal vehicle for broadcasting and increasing awareness of students of all ages in all areas of education. The 33 channels have enormous bandwidth carrying out educational programmes regulated by various Ministries and also can reach the last mile through TV and mobiles with low-speed Internet.”

The SWAYAM PRABHA is a group of 33 DTH channels devoted to telecasting of high-quality educational programmes on a 24X7 basis using the GSAT-15 satellite. New content is generated on a daily basis for a minimum of four hours and repeated five more times in a day, allowing the students to choose the time of their convenience. The channels are uplinked from BISAG, Gandhinagar. The contents are provided by NPTEL, IITs, UGC, CEC, IGNOU, NCERT and NIOS. The INFLIBNET Centre maintains the web portal.

This course consists of the following modules:

Ø  Introduction to dyslexia

Ø  Child Development

Ø  Screening

Ø  Reading

Ø  Spelling

Ø  Writing

Ø  Math

Ø  Study Skills

Ø  Multiple Intelligence (MI)

These child-centric teaching lessons can be included in all primary classes by any teacher. MDA conducts training program towards this objective. Empowered Mainstream teachers can facilitate the learning process for children with mild dyslexia within the comforts of the classroom. Caretakers who provide additional support during after-school hours would also be able to teach the child, the way he or she learns, hence can be more effective.

In its journey of 28 years, Madras Dyslexia Association has garnered the required infrastructural and government collaboration to reach out so far and wide. The training programs conducted by MDA are helping a large number of teachers, impacting several thousand children. This can be one of the effective ways to narrow the academic gap and ameliorate the positive outcomes for children who are otherwise likely to miss the opportunities to receive remedial support.