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Panchkula: School for kids with special needs gets back on wheels
The two buses, billed “Kalam Express”, are equipped with a television, laptop library, sports as well as teaching and physiotherapy kits
Kalam Express, a “school on wheels” for children with special needs, will roll on city streets again as Dhanwantari Ayurvedic College and Hospital has come came forward to run the project under corporate social responsibility (CSR) — four years after it was shut down for want of funds.
The project ran into financial troubles soon after being launched amid much fanfare under the District Red Cross Society in August 2017. The Ayurvedic College in Sector 46, however, will bear the annual expenditure of ₹15 lakh needed to run the buses, two of which are expected to be flagged off on Thursday.
The two buses, billed “Kalam Express”, are equipped with a television, laptop library, sports as well as teaching and physiotherapy kits. Ramps have been provided for children with special needs to board the bus, where children can interact with each other, get help in learning and physical therapy.
The buses will operate six days a week and have special teachers, physiotherapists and, if necessary, speech therapists.
The buses are slated to go door-to-door in slum areas, colonies and villages to provide education to children with special needs and are unable to attend school.
They will cater to children with visual, hearing, speech impediments and those with intellectual disabilities. The teaching methods will vary depending on each child’s IQ.
The decision to restart the buses was taken in a meeting attended by Panchkula mayor and Dhanwantri Ayurvedic College and Hospital chairperson Kulbhushan Goyal, principal Kusum Kumar Gupta, other officials and the district Red Cross Society.
Speaking on the occasion, Goyal, said, “There are 470 children in Panchkula who were suffering as the project was discontinued due to lack of funds.”
The Kalam Express project was inaugurated by the then Haryana governor Kaptan Singh Solanki on Independence Day in 2017.
The school first opened in Jind in 2015 and also became operational in Chandigarh in June 2016, before making its way to Panchkula.
