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Cover Story EW SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOOLS RANKINGS 2021 22

INDIA’S MOST RESPECTED SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOOLS

To compile the 2021-22
league table of dedicated
special needs schools, C fore
field personnel interviewed
494 parents of children
with disabilities and special
needs educators in six cities.
They were asked to rate
special needs schools on ten
parameters of education
excellence

ne of post-independence In-
dia’s greatest acts of omission
Oaccording to author, scholar,
historian and politician Dr. Shashi
Tharoor, MP, is neglect of primary ASHA’s Ramesh (centre right): #1 rank elation
education (see www.educationworld.
in). But perhaps the greater collective petence of faculty, quality of pro- ers and parents across Karnataka,”
sin is neglect of children with physi- gram, rehabilitation, co-curricular says J ayas hre e R am e s h, a special
cal and mental disabilities whose education, individual attention to education postgrad of San Jose State
number nationwide is estimated students, leadership/management University, USA, and founder-direc-
at 20 million, according to ADAPT quality, safety and hygiene, infrastruc- tor of ASHA which currently has 92
(formerly Spastics Society of India). ture provision and value for money. students and 36 teachers including
To right this egregious wrong since Ranked #3 last year, the Acade m y seven therapists, on its muster rolls.
2011, Educ ationW orld has encour- f o r Se v e re H an di cap s an d Au - At top table, T he Adi t ya B i rl a
aged mainstream K-12 schools to make t i s m , B e n g al uru (ASHA, estb.1995) I n t e g rat e d Scho o l , M um b ai
better provision for children with spe- is India’s #1 special needs school in (TABIS, estb.2014) promoted by phi-
cial needs (CWSN) by introducing the 2021-22. ASHA has been awarded top lanthropist N e e rj a B i rl a, is ranked
parameter of special needs education scores under the parameters of teach- #2 (#1 in 2020-21) followed by Delhi’s
(with a maximum score of 100) in the er welfare and development, teacher pioneer T am an a Aut i s m C e n t re
annual EW India School Rankings. competence, quality of program and (estb.1992) promoted by celebrated
Subsequently in 2015, we introduced individual attention to students. educationist Dr. Shayam a C ho n a
a dedicated league table ranking the “This is wonderful news! Our hard at #3 (2). SP J Sadhan a Scho o l ,
country’s best special needs schools. work has paid off! Forced to switch to M um b ai #4 (4) and M at a B hag -
Since then, the number of sufficient- online learning last April, we provided w an t i C hadha N i k e t an ( M B C N ) ,
ly high profile special schools has intensive digital technologies training N o i da #5 (5) have retained their
risen from 16 in 2015 to 28 in 2021. to all our teachers, investing substan- 2020-21 rankings with San k al p ,
To compile the 2021-22 league tial time to design specific solutions C he n n ai , making a great leap for-
table of India’s Top 28 special needs for the special needs and conditions of ward into the Top 5 from #13 last year.
schools, C fore field researchers in- our children. Our teachers responded The Top 10 table is completed by
terviewed 446 parents and 48 special enthusiastically and won us the day. Al p ha t o O m e g a L e arn i n g C e n -
needs educators in six major cities. We hope to strengthen our online t re , C he n n ai (Alpha-2-Omega,
They were asked to rate and rank learning competence and develop estb. 1988) which has vaulted from
special schools on ten parameters new ways of teaching-learning, and #23 last year to an impressive #6
of education excellence — teacher continue providing training in English this year; Sw e e k ar Acade m y o f
welfare and development, com- and vernacular languages to teach- R e hab i l i t at i o n Sci e n ce s , Se cun -

268 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2021