Admissions over

Ever since we have wait list for admission, there is lot of misunderstanding amongst parents of these children. Not only parents but many of our well wishers are also not clear about why there is a wait list. Thus we get lot of phone calls from such parents and concerned people also. To clear this confusion from the mind of these parents and to make our selves clear we are here under giving the whole admission procedure, admissions done this year and the latest wait list position. The whole thing is absolutely transparent and can understood easily.
Admission procedure: What is the procedure adopted for admitting a mentally disabled child in to Sandnya Sanwardhan Sanstha’s “Kalpataru” special school? Till about 4-5 years back, this question had no significance as far as parents of mentally challenged children were concerned. Though, we at SSS had evolved an admission system as early as in the year 1995. Parents normally came to us and followed the system with not giving much credence to whatever we said and did. The reason was everyone was getting admission.
But since last 4-5 years there is a wait list for getting in to SSS special school. And as this wait list is growing parents have started becoming impatient. When they are told that their child cannot get admission, they are shocked, they cannot believe. Further, when they hear the number of wait list they feel dejected and disappointed. From this point they really start thinking about why there is wait list and can it be over ruled or bypassed by any means? Is there a chance for manipulation on their part or from management? This situation is of rather disbelief in the system. Nothing wrong as far as parents are concerned, because, in our country things do not move with system but by and large it works by twisting the system. Parents find it hard to believe that there is an organization which works on ethics, morals and principals. Thus few parents try to bring recommendation, try to give threat and even try to bribe. We do not blame parents for this, but we are thus trying here to explain how we follow a procedure for admission.
Step one- Parent approaches our office for admission. We give a date for the assessment where in mentally disabled child along with both parents have to report on the given date. Parents are advised to bring disability certificate of the mentally disabled child. This certificate is issued by Civil Surgeon.
Step two- On given date and time assessment of the child is done by the special educator and Clinical Psychologist. This procedure takes about 1 ½ hour to 2 hours. Principal decides the appropriate class as per the assessment report of the special educator. If “primary class” is appropriate and if we have vacancy, this child is given admission.
Step three- Parents are given date for paying admission fees and conveyance expense.
Step four- On payment of fees, parents are informed about the uniform, tiffin, stoppage for the bus and its timings etc.
But in case, if there is no vacancy for the “primary class”, then this child is given a wait list number. This wait list number is for this particular class. It may happen that for “primary class” the wait list number is one, but the overall wait list number for this same child could be something like 42. Thus whenever there is a vacancy in primary class, this child will get admission in spite of the fact that, the overall number is 42. If another child is assessed much earlier and is on wait list no.1 for “secondary class” and his overall wait list number is 20 only. Since there is no vacancy in "secondary class", this child does not get admission. This second child’s parent feels aggrieved and thinks that there is something fishy. In such situations, this parent tries all prevailing corrupt practices including bribe. Though, our Principal tries his best to explain all these things to the parent at the time of assessment, most of the parents do not accept it and try to approach higher ups. Nothing wrong in this. We are happy, after explaining, most of the parents understand and realize the difference in SSS and other institutions. We have talked about this issue of admission in detail, to aware all concerned parents, their relatives and all our supporters as well. We once again assure that, SSS works for the cause of mental disability with no discrimination of cast, creed, and religion and socio economic condition of the parent. For us all mentally challenged children are same. Our commitment to this noble cause is total and absolutely honest. We do not bend rules which are made by us only. People must understand that no trusty member of SSS ever recommends any candidate for admission because they know that it will be carried as per the set norms.
Admissions for this academic year are complete. For this year we have admitted 14 new students in total. Out of this 2 are from Butibori. Class wise, it is 3- in Autistic, 3- in care group, 3 in pre primary, 1- in primary, 1- in secondary and 3- in pre vocational, thus total 14 new admission. This was possible because, 6 students withdrew their names for various reasons and “rakhi unit 6 members” were shifted to our Nagpur office. In last more then ten years, this is for the first time we could admit those many new students. We at Sandnya feel satisfied and relieved to a great extent.
The wait list position as on date for various classes is as follows:
Care group-3, Pre-primary-5, Autistic-2, Primary-5, Pre-vocational-3.
We at Sandnya are trying our best to get a third bus, if we get one, may be the wait list will be cleared.
By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS
e-mail: navindesh@gmail.com

First day of Kalpataru

Yes 13Th June was the reopening day of our special school "Kalpataru". And the attendance was very poor. Out of 87, only 30 students reported. It was surprising for me to note that, non of the newly admitted students reported. I had a odd feeling. All the parents of these newly admitted students were so much anxious or at least showed anxiety for admission as if they will send there ward to school the very same moment. And now they got their ward admitted, they are not bothered. My observation is, it takes at least one week for parents to get warmed up for sending their mentally disabled child to school. In most of the cases, parents are not really interested in any thing else than to see that their son/daughter are away for few hours. They expect it like a baby sitting arrangement. I have seen very few parents who are keen in the progress of their son/daughter in true sense. We certainly understand the parents problems. But unfortunately for us at SSS, it is not a baby sitting job for us. We put every thing in to it like money, mind and our soul. A smallest progress in a severely retarded child is like winning a award for us. Most of the people do not realize our commitment to this cause. For us at SSS it would be a matter of great concern when a mentally challenged student of ours do not show progress. This is thoroughly discussed with the concerned teacher, not only that, it is the main point on the agenda in the monthly staff meeting as well. It really hurts us when we find many parents do not take things seriously. Sending their ward regularly to school is not a priority for many parents. If it suits to their routine of the day then only he /she is sent. Further, it is a matter of great concern to us, when parents do not bother to intimate the Principal of the school if the child is not likely to come. In many instances this absenteeism is for more than a month also. During parent meeting, we have been talking about this, but many parents simply do not bother. When you take admission you give a under taking to follow the rules and regulation of the Institute. But who cares and who really reads it seriously? We are eager to take admission, and so simply sign on any paper put in front of us. Not a very good attitude. Of course, there are few parents they are disciplined and follow it religiously. It is soothing for both, parents and us at SSS.
By: Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS
e-mail: navindesh@gmail.com

Staff meeting of SSS

On 4th June we had the first staff meeting of the new academic year 2011-12. In fact school reopened for staff on 1st June and it is expected that all staff will be present. But as usual, -3 staff members were absent. We at SSS follow the practice of having interaction with all staff members through regular staff meetings. The first purpose of a staff meeting is to keep the moral high. It is not easy to work with mentally challenged children, it becomes still more strenuous when there are more severely and profoundly retarded children. Because in such children the progress is slow and at times not even noticeable. Secondly, it is also important for us that, all staff and volunteers must work according to our philosophy and that is " Shiv Bhave Jiva Seva". Having "seva" bhav is the most important thing. Thirdly, these meetings are meant to solve the problems of the staff. These problems could be administrative or intra staff related problems. During these meetings we try to motivate the staff members to up date their technical knowledge also. These staff meetings help in maintaining the discipline in the campus. Normally these meetings are conducted by Principal in the presence of secretary. We try to maintain a healthy atmosphere were each person can work without fear and should feed free to give feed back and suggestions which will help better progress in our mentally challenged students.
Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

Recognition for credibility

To day at about 5:20 pm a gentalmen walked in to my office and aske about SSS office being closed. On asking, what is the purpose of his visit to SSS, he said he wanted to donate Rs.5000/- as it his son's birthday. He said he donates every year on this day.
It is about 18 years back, we were in the process of forming SSS as a trust. We would be trustees were discussing the modalities of trust and its functions like objective, funds, source of funds, government aid, recruitment, staff,our work philosophy etc. During the debate on source of funds, I proposed not to go for government aid for various reasons. Most of my friends were apprehensive about the survival without government aid. Some showed the concern verbally and some were quite. But overall mood was not in favor. Since I had better way of putting my point across, and I being a bit more aggressive at that time, my opinion prevailed. One of our would be trustees inquired, how long people will give donation? and how many times the same person will donate. To this, my answer was, same person will donate to SSS any number of times and people to known to us and unknown to us will also donate as long as we work honestly, sincerely, and selflessly. Support will come always with out fail. But in my opinion, the primary condition would be that we do not take any benefit out of this work directly or indirectly, no monetary considerations be taken for whatsoever reason, no advantage derived by way of publicity for our personal gains directly or indirectly. If we consider this work as GOD'S work, there would be no reason for getting fulfilled our desired objective.
And needless to say, we followed our own resolution in absolute terms, and thus no wonder we are still working without government aid. Why I have to wright this? Because, we have been receiving donations from people unknown to us, and they have been donating regularly. We have succeeded in creating confidence & credibility in the minds of people by way of our transparent and honest work culture. That is the most satisfying factor for me. I know right from the inception, that this work is not ours but it is Divine, and if it is truly Divine than "HE" has to take care of it. We are only means to execute the Divine will. And that is what is really happening since 1993.


Navin Deshpande, Secretary, SSS

Reopening of Vocational section

Vocational training section of our school reopened on 1st May after summer vacation. The summer vacation was for two weeks. We have shifted our "Rakhi - rehab - unit" to Nagpur from 1st May. This is shifted to our Nagpur office premises. This rehab unit involves more number of volunteers at every stage right from designing to marketing. We were finding it difficult for volunteers to go to Butibori. There are many volunteers who can give only 3-4 hours day and preferably in second half. Most of the volunteers for this work are senior house wife's who can give time in second half of of the day. Thus shifting this unit to Nagpur office should be beneficial. We already have our social worker attached to Nagpur office, thus, her time can also be put to more use.

The change was off course resisted by all concerned including mothers of these mentally challenged girls, the participants of this unit. Change in any system is not accepted so readily, this is obvious. From any angle, this is beneficial for the mentally challenged students, parents and the practical execution of this rehab unit.

This change will certainly reduce load on our buses and we can admit few more mentally challenged children for next academic session. This in turn should help us in reducing the wait list for admission.

Rakhi rehab unit is not only financially independent but is commercially successful also. This rehab unit is showing consistent profitability since last more than 8 years. Parents are more than satisfied and take keen interest in the activity. I always feel, if parents can be more involved specially in rehab activity, then we are sure of rehabilitating more than 70 % mentally challenged persons. But for various reasons this does not happen and off course you can not blame the parents. Because, at SSS we do realize that every parson as a parent of mentally challenged has his own limitations. But the reality is you can not totally depend on paid staff as far as rehab activity is concerned. It is observed that, most of the institutes working for rehab activity for mentally challenged really work for giving job to normal persons. Thus it becomes rehabilitation of normal people rather than mentally challenged.