The Method of Teaching and Examination for Individuals with Visual Impairments: the System in India and Japan

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)...AbstractIntroduction: Education of children with special needs is an important field of study. Children with special needs deserve to be educated like any other human being. Over the years, several provisions have been made and laws have been passed to ensure education of children with special needs. A visually impaired child's needs and goals for learning are not different from that of his sighted peers. Only the means of achieving those goals are different.Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the prevalent method of teaching and the system of examination for students with Visual Impairment studying in the special schools for the blind in India and Japan.Methodology: The study was delimited to i) blind students only and ii) the special schools for the blind in Kolkata and Tokyo. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 50 teachers (25 each from the special schools for the blind in Kolkata and Tokyo). The researcher interviewed the teachers. Semi-structured information schedules were used to collect data and the data were analyzed only qualitatively.Findings: The method of teaching the blind students was similar in both Kolkata and Tokyo. Differences were observed mainly in the type of teaching equipments used. Regarding the system of examination, differences were observed within the special schools in Kolkata. In Tokyo, however, all the special schools followed a uniform system. The study revealed that in Kolkata a strict pass/fail criterion existed. In Tokyo, on the other hand, there was no strict pass/fail criterion.Conclusion: This study is important because not many comparative studies have been done between India and Japan. Most of the comparative research work is either between Japan and the U.S.A or between Japan and the U.K. This study was conducted mainly to find out the differences between a Developing and a Developed nation. Being a developed country, it is always assumed that there will be a lot to learn from Japan. Through this research study an attempt has been made to find out whether this assumption is true and if it is true then, to what extent the system can be implemented and practiced in the Indian scenario.Keywords: Method of teaching, system of examination, special schools for the blind, Kolkata, TokyoIntroductionEducation in its broadest sense aims to develop and enrich total personality of an individual by providing a well-rounded programme of academic excellence, vocational orientation and cultural fulfillment. Education has to be organized on grounds of utility. It is education which helps a person in realizing his/her potentials and nurturing them (1). A person who is different from the average is entitled to education which would be suited to his unique needs. Education and proper training enables a person to overcome his/her disability and establish himself/herself as a contributing and an independent member of the society.Vision refers to a person's ability to see finer details or clearly distinguish forms at varying distances. The Rehabilitation Council of India Act (1992) stipulated that a Visually Handicapped person means a person who suffers from any of the following conditions, namely:1. Total absence of light;2. Visual acuity not exceeding 20/200 (Snellen Chart) in the better eye with the correcting lenses; or3. Limitation of the field of vision subtending an angle of 20 degree or worse. (2)According to the Law for the Welfare of Physically Disabled Persons in Japan, visual impairment is defined clinically in terms of:1. Visual acuity (as measured in accordance with the International Vision Chart and measured degree of correctness; hereafter the same) of both eyes being 0.1 or less;2. Visual acuity of one eye at 0.02 or less and the other at 0.6 or less;3. Visual field diameter 10 degree or less of both eyes;4. …