 |
 |
| HOME |
Here are a few examples of people who, with a lot of determination of their own and with a little help from the NOS, have made their lives better.
Lakshmi, Arup Banerjee, Tamana, Murad Butt, Namit Sachdeva, Pankaj Kapoor, Divya Arora and Mithun Barua.
Nineteen year old Lakshmi is physically handicapped and moves with the help of crutches. She enrolled for the Class X Secondary course offered by the NOS, after completing her 8th standard at Amarjyoti.
Simultaneously, she was trained to become a watch mechanic in the vocational training unit of Amarjyoti Rehabilitation and Research Centre, Delhi. Today Lakshmi has not only completed her 12th/Senior Secondary from the NOS but is also employed as a mechanic at the HMT Watch Servicing and Repair Centre at Amarjyoti, where she is a much sought after person.
Full of enthusiasm and courage, she travels from Paharganj in Central Delhi to Karkardooma in East Delhi, a distance of about 20 kms., on her motorised tricycle.
Her dear mother and loving brother have been a source of inspiration. Her firm determination has also helped her come a long way and become completely independent.
Lakshmi does not plan to continue with her education but has certainly been able to make her life meaningful. She is very down to earth and when asked about her marriage plans, she categorically gave a firm NO for the simple reason that her husband may accept her but not the others.
Arup Banerjee is a 25 year old mentally retarded boy. He has
successfully completed the Class X course offered by the NOS. He found the NOS curriculum
simple and easily comprehensible. He has now enrolled for the Senior Secondary Course and
hopes to complete it too.
Arup is now employed as a helper at the Balwant Rai Mehta Vidyalaya in Greater Kailash, New Delhi, which is incidentally one of the NOS study centres where he was enrolled.
A keen sportsman, Arup had won the bronze medal at the 1991 Olympic Meet held at Madras.
His ambition is to secure a government job for which he has been making consistent efforts.
Seventeen year old Tamana, is mentally handicapped and
partially blind. She has been able to brilliantly cope with the NOS curriculum and has
successfully completed the Secondary level course.
She is now enrolled for the Senior Secondary level course, where she has cleared her paper in Word Processing.
Tamana's highly optimistic mother has been the inspiring force in her life and the moving spirit behind "Tamana", an institution in Delhi which has been created for the purpose of helping the cause of the developmentally disabled and minimal brain damaged children.
Her interests include listening to music, both Indian and Pop.
She plans to go abroad and pursue a course in Secretarial Practice.
Twenty year old Murad Butt hails from a business family in Gangtok, Sikkim.
Murad successfully completed the Senior Secondary Course Offered by the NOS in 1997 and was enrolled at the study centre in Siliguri, West Bengal.
Intelligent and pleasant mannered, Murad is now pursuing a course in engineering at Ramanagaram, Karnataka.
A student of The Spastic Society of Northern India (SSNI), New Delhi. Namit Sachdeva first appeared for the Open School ClassX examinations in 1993, taking two subjects. He passed these and successfully cleared the next two subjects by 1995.
Namit has Cerebral Palsy and is wheel chair bound. His hand writing is slow and laboured, quite often illegible. Open School helped by giving him an hours extra time and allowed the SSNI authorities to provide a Special Educator who wrote out his responses.
Having now successfully completed the first two papers of Open School Class 12th, Namit hopes to get his Class 12th certificate by 1999.
A slow learner, this young man of 24, is now training as an Assistant Librarian at The Center for Special Education, SSNI, New Delhi.
Now working as the Receptionist at SSNI, Pankaj Kapoor, age 24, successfully completed his Class X, Open School in 1995.
He is a Spastic Quadriplegic, a slow learner and wheelchair bound.. Open School helped him by giving him extra time during the examinations so that he could dictate his responses to the writers allowed by the authorities. His achievement in successfully completing his Class X Certificate gave Pankaj a new sense of confidence in his abilities.
He now handles the reception desk at SSNI with ease and efficiency.
Age 20, Divya Arora is a Spastic Quadriplegic, wheelchair bound and dependent on others for all her needs.
Initially unsure of her academic abilities, Divya studied under the Open School System Class 10th and successfully completed her course of studies in 1997. Uncertain health made the Open School system her best choice – the facility of not having to cope with 5 subjects at the same time, helped Divya achieve brilliantly high marks.
Now completing her Class 12th as a private student, Divya is adept at the computer and speaks fluent French. She hopes to go to college for higher studies, with French as her main subject.
The start that the Open School system gave her, has proved invaluable. Unable to attend regular school and having had to stay at home for many years, Divya truly appreciated the head start Open School has given her.
After successfully completing his class X Open School Board Examination in 1997, taking two and a half years to do so, Mithun Barua has registered for Class 12th, continuing with the Open School system.
He hopes to complete all his subjects by the year 2000. Severely physically disabled, Mithun is a C.P. Spastic Quadriplegic and will always remain in wheelchair. His speech is strained and physical constraints prevent him from sitting comfortably for any length of time. The Open School authorities helped him by giving him extra time and a writer from SSNI (who understood his speech) wrote down his responses.
He hopes to be able to continue with higher education after completing his Class 12th, through the Open School.
| Home | Table of Contents |