Plan to set up LD centres across state ….Anahita Mukherji I TNN
Mumbai: Students with Learning Disability (LD) will no longer have to travel from across the state to Mumbai for an LD certificate, which enable them to concessions during state board exams.
SSC board chairperson Vijaysheela Sardesai has scheduled a meeting with Maharashtras director of medical education in mid-May to identify one LD centre in each region of the state that will be able to diagnose and certify children with LD.
Currently, the paediatrics department at Sion Hospital is the only one in Maharashtra authorised by the SSC board to certify children with LD. There are a number of concessions given by the SSC board to students with LD, which include extra time as well as a writer during exams. However, to avail of these concessions, children need an LD certificate from Sion Hospital.
From the coming academic year, Nair Hospital at Mumbai Central will also be authorised to certify students with LD. Last week, Sardesai was in the city to inspect the department of psychiatry at Nair Hospital.
Another civic hospital, KEM at Parel, is also in the process of setting up an LD clinic. Our proposal to set up an LD clinic is still in the preliminary stages, says Shubhangi Parkar, head of the psychiatry department at KEM.
LD refers to a group of neurological disorders that affects a childs academic and functional skills like reading, writing and mathematics. Dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia are forms of LD. A student with dyslexia may mirror write letters and words and substitute letters like b for d. Students with LD usually have normal or above average intelligence. The recent Aamir Khan starrer, Taare Zameen Par, put the spotlight on LD.
Social psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty, who has been at the forefront of the LD movement in India feels that it should be mandatory for every department of psychiatry in the state to set up a child guidance centre for LD. Its the responsibility of the mental health fraternity to join hands with the government to support students with LD, says Shetty.