C. R. Ranganathan Residential School for Deaf (Shri Sadguru Saibaba Seva Trust)

Supported by: Wipro Cares

About the organization

The present chairman, B. Patole, started, C. R. Ranganathan Residential School for Deaf in 1993. Its objective was to help needy and poor hard-of-hearing children, in the form of quality education and all forms of rehabilitation, irrespective of religion.

The main initiatives of the organization are:

• To provide comprehensive education for hard-of-hearing students of C. R. Ranganathan Residential School for the deaf which encourages self-reliance and life-long learning to promote social development and cultural awareness.
• To prepare students to attain their potential and become contributing members of the community.
• Rehabilitation of the hard-of-hearing students by providing them with job competence.
• Overall development of hard-of-hearing students, so that they do not lag other children.

Approach

For most of the children, their hearing impairment is a congenital condition – they are born with severe or total deafness. Speaking is a challenge that many of the students are working on. Nearly all of the teachers can hear normally. They teach in a holistic manner using sign language, speaking, and writing. Classrooms for the primary-class students are equipped with hearing aids, which are connected to a central system. All our school students have hearing aids that make the sounds louder so that these children can listen, communicate, and participate more fully in their daily activities. There is a dedicated hearing and speech therapist at the school who tests all the children and equips them with the necessary tools to improve their hearing and speech.

Program updates

The school serves as an educational and social center for the deaf community. Early intervention ensures stronger learning experiences. Our institute is engaged in putting continuous efforts into early intervention and identification of students below 5 years of age. Each classroom is equipped with an e-learning set wherein the topics of all the subjects from classes one to ten are made available. The teachers can teach any of the topics at any time. With the help of attractive images, animated pictures, and 3D videos it becomes simple for the students to learn and understand the concept of a topic with ease.

There is a three percent reservation for these students in government jobs that largely remains vacant due to the unavailability of eligible, undergraduate candidates. Our organization has opened the doors of higher education and provides training through a competitive exam guidance center for these students to become eligible for jobs and stand on their feet.

The education and rehabilitation of hard-of-hearing children between the ages of 3-18 years is done by the school with the arrangement of food, uniform, and accommodation facility.

The provision of all requisites necessary for the education of these students is done with a scientific method by the school by way of self-contribution and donation.

Presently the institute serves 450 plus hard-of-hearing students including the school, junior college, senior college, and D.Ed. College. This includes children from remote locations, poor families, and slum areas.

The institute gets grant aid from the state government for 75 students. The expenditure of food, uniforms, cost of living, and other necessities in the day-to-day life of remaining students is borne by the institute and Wipro Cares together.