Teach to Reach (TTR)

Teach to Reach was a 5 months training program for people who care about children with special needs (CWSN) and are willing to teach them in regular schools. The aim was to build a cadre of assistant teachers in Goa who can support children with autism and mental retardation in mainstream schools and make the policy of inclusive education a reality.

TTR was conducted as a part-time course, from March to July 2007, over approximately 400 training hours. In the mornings, the trainee teachers worked in resource rooms for CWSN in regular schools to gain hands-on experience of teaching. Theory classes were conducted in the afternoons.
Various topics pertaining to child development, disabilities, inclusive education, teaching-learning strategies, Individualised Educational Programs, promoting communication and behavior modification were addressed.

Altogether 12 trainees attended the course. Sethu is immensely grateful to the Ashiyana Foundation for providing financial support to this program. We also thank the management and staff of Holy Cross High School, Bastora, Chubby Cheeks Preschool Porvorim and Spring Valley School, Pilerne for welcoming the trainee teachers into their resource rooms.

We are happy that the majority of teachers who attended the course are now working in resource rooms, thereby helping more special needs children to enjoy the benefits of an inclusive education. Some of them are also providing home-based teaching services and assisting parents to care for their children.

The resource persons who made Teach to Reach such a lively, practical and effective course were Giselle Lobo, Gargi Roy-Sinha, Yogita Joshi, (all special educators) Anjali Barretto (speech and language therapist), Liz Kemp (a public artist from Scotland, who has worked on community art projects with differently abled people), Elaine Mendonca (reading specialist) and Dr. Nandita de Souza (developmental pediatrician)