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Jormal Periwal Memorial Senior Secondary School for the Blind , a recognized AIDED school under the Directorate of Education, Govt. of NCT of Delhi and administered by the Blind Relief Association, Delhi, is a special residential school for the visually challenged boys. The following are the milestones and achievements that went into the making of the school at its present location.
In 1944 Smt. Anusuya & Sh. U.A. Basrurker, eminent freedom fighters and social workers initiated serving the visually challenged youngsters and in 1946 they opened Industrial Home and School for the Blind at Badarpur.
In 1955 Dr Helen Keller laid the foundation stone of the present building of the Blind Relief Association, Delhi.
In 1966 Honourable Prime Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi inaugurated the Association’s school building.
The School became Recognized and Aided by the Directorate of Education, Government of NCT Delhi since 1969 and affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) since 1974.
Apart from the school, the Association, an NGO working for the welfare of the blind brethren, runs:
a) Technical Training Centre cum Workshop,
b) Studio for recording books for the blind,
c) Indian Blind Sports Association (IBSA),
d) Computerized Braille Printing and Vocational Training in book binding/ stationery making, repair of household electrical/electronic appliances,
e) Diploma Course in computer Education,
f) Call Centre Training,
g) Massage Training,
h) Multi Skill Training (bakery, stitching, soap making, cane weaving, candle making),
i) In-house Dispensary Unit
j) School Library with full-fledged braille books, audio and print texts
k) Durgabai Deshmukh College of Special Education (Visual Impairment) all of which situate at the same premises beside Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg, New Delhi, 110003. The Blind Relief Association, Delhi, completed 75 years of its existence on 26 February, 2019. Launching its services in 1946 with the establishment of Industrial Home and School for the Blind in rented premises at Lal Kuan, Badarpur with just two students Daya Ram and Murli Dhar, the Association now serves nearly 400 blind children and adults at its own sprawling campus in the heart of New Delhi. The Association’s multi-faceted activities encompass school-education including special care programs for visually impaired children with limited abilities, teacher-training, computer education, and vocational training, and placement service, production of reading material in Braille and audio formats, consultancy and awareness creation. Most of the programmes are residential. The Association campus is vibrant throughout the year with cultural, sports and other events.
JPM Senior Secondary School has been offering free education, boarding, lodging, assistive devices, books and other services to visually impaired boys from class I to Class XII. JPM SSS has been widely renowned in the country for nurturing and grooming the visually challenged children to be optimistic and ambitious citizens excelling in academics, sports and co-curricular activities. An appreciable number of its alumni today work as Teachers, School Principals, Professors, Bank Managers, Administrative Officers, Advocates and Software personnel.
While the majority of students reside in the school hostel, a few hailing from Delhi are day scholars. The initial class focuses on laying a broad foundation of tactile and braille reading writing skills, daily living skills, developing and strengthening blind children’s orientation and mobility and concept development.
The classes were introduced in 2012 as an after-school activity with the support of volunteers from Japan, who are professional teachers. Presently interested students of Class XI and XII are attending these basic Japanese classes held by Mrs. Itsuko Nandi, veteran language teacher. A recent happy development has been the emergence of Sawaru Nihongo (Touch Japanese) Group formed by the ex-students and present students. The group is pursuing Japanese study using Japanese Braille. Ms Himani, a young student volunteer, has been helping this group, formed with the initiatives of ex-students Deepak Gupta and Ramdas Shivhare. The group prepares the students to appear for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test conducted globally.
The school has been providing education in a wide array of academic subjects including science and mathematics at secondary levels and physical education in accordance with the curriculum laid down by the Directorate of Education, Delhi and CBSE. The School is proud to have produced India’s first blind Olympic athlete and keeps sending forward a host of national and international level athletes excelling in field and track events, body building events and also games like football, kabbadi and cricket. Regular practice either in athletics or in yoga daily gives zest to the students to start their school life early in the morning. Students are well exposed to organizational and leadership skills and their daily practice of spoken English classes gives fine touches to their outspoken and expressive skills that go a long way in making them strong individuals with a vision for the nation. Keeping abreast with the times, all students from Class VI onwards are taught and trained in computers. The teaching system in mathematics and science is also being strengthened and upgraded in tune with the contemporary requirements. The school is proud that it has maintained 100% CBSE result at Senior Secondary level for the past two decades. The school takes pride in its students joining prestigious colleges and universities to pursue their higher studies. Year after year the school has been recipient of Excellence in Education Award from the Directorate of Education, Delhi.
Counselling Services: The school has got a full time counsellor to deal with various issues pertaining to education, career, personality and mental health of the students. The services being provided by the counsellor are as follows:
Screening of the child at the time of admission so as to ascertain best possible course of action for the child and general counselling of parents To conduct educational workshops related to various issues of concern for the students namely hygiene, good health, storytelling, personality development, motivation and career counselling To screen a regular student if his behaviour seems deviating from normal and to arrange for his proper testing to provide him best possible treatment for betterment To screen multiple disability in special cases and ascertain whether they need to be accommodated in Functional Academic group or Remedial Teaching group To coordinate different co-curricular activities for the students To arrange field visits of the student to specific places for their future progress like visit to Equal Opportunity Cell by class 12 to gather information for college admissions To facilitate special instructors for specific exam requirement of the school students
Co-curricular activities:
The school provides all facilities, support and encouragement to its students to take part in diverse co-curricular activities that includes dance, music, theatre, poetry composition and recitation, extempore, debating, declamation, essay writing, music and eco-club.
Sports Activities:
The school has been actively involved in developing sporting skills of its students. Two regular physical training instructors monitor various sports and games. In the morning hours, students from different classes either practice athletics or yoga under the guidance of the Physical Education Teachers. During a calendar year the school participates in sports activities ranging from intra-school to zone, national and international levels.
Other Activities:
Japanese Language Classes
Interactions: Students from American Embassy School continue to interact with the junior school students on Saturdays.
Student Initiatives: Leadership and organization acumen of the students stand out in several events being managed entirely by them. Some of the prominent events are:
● Janmashtami celebrations organized by Class XII include 24- hour mass recitation of the Ramcharitmanas.
● Basant Panchami and Saraswati Puja is organized by Class X
● Shivratri celebrations are organized by Class XI.
Teachers’ Day Celebrations is organized by Class XII. Subodh Trophy Cricket Match is organized by Class IX. Nayar Memorial Cricket Trophy is organized by class XI.
House Activities: The school-students are divided into four House groups, namely, Basrurker House, Deshmukh House, Bharat Ram House and Nayar House. The houses take up month-wise responsibility of conducting daily morning assembly and cultural activities in the school. This provides the youngsters a favourable opportunity of utilizing and developing their cultural abilities besides bringing out their leadership qualities.
Special Care Unit
The unit is run by the Blind Relief Association as a special support service for the benefit of JPM School students who require individual, personalized attention in academic and co-curricular activities. The children are referred to the unit by the School. The unit has two full-time qualified special educators and two part-time teachers in music, art and craft. One resident house parent takes care of the students in the pre and post-school hours. In order to make appropriate need-based interventions, the unit divides the beneficiary students into two groups: 1. Functional Academic Group: The students are trained in functional academics like number, money and time concepts and activities of daily living, such as, orientation and mobility, personal hygiene and pre-vocational activities. 2. Remedial Teaching Group: As a remedial teaching initiative, the children are provided with individual care to improve their reading and writing skills. Personal attention is given to basic Braille reading, writing and understanding of writing numbers using Taylor Frame. While Hindi is their primary language they are also taught the basics of English Braille. Whenever possible, the students under Functional Academic Group are given the opportunity to attend, even if nominally, classes with their age group students in the school. They attend some classes like art and craft, clay modelling, music and physical education along with the other children. Thereafter, in consultation with their parents, some students are encouraged and advised to continue study as fully integrated students, while some are advised to join appropriate vocational training.
Staff: The school strives to give quality education to all those fortunate children who walk into its portal year after year thanks to all devoted school staff, the Blind Relief Association Officials and a host of volunteers.
Management: The functioning of the school is overseen by the Managing Committee constituted in accordance with the Delhi School Education Act and Rules 1973. The Committee is chaired by Smt. Radhika Bharatram, a noted educationist and philanthropist. In addition, the school has a separate 16-member committee ‘The SMC’ covering education up to Class VIII in terms of the Right to Education Act 2009.