Governor Dr. Ashwani Kumar and his wife during a visit to Tabitha Enabling Academy on December 31. (Morung Photo)
Kohima, January 2: Nagaland Governor, Dr. Ashwani Kumar visited Tabitha Enabling Academy (TEA), Kohima on December 31 last. He interacted with the staff and children and later offered gifts to them. It may be mentioned that TEA came into being with the aim to reach out to the differently abled children with special needs.
It began functioning in 2010, through home based education and was formally inaugurated on June 30, 2011.
Located at Chakhesang Baptist Church, Kitsubozou, TEA is an exclusive school emphasizing on reciprocal learning, where both the normal and the special needs children can learn together, live together, love and laugh together.
The aims and objectives of TEA is to create awareness on the need to care for and respect children with special needs, to enable children with special needs to accept themselves as they are, to give equal opportunity to the children with special needs as much as the normal children at school, church or any institution without discrimination, to create awareness that children with special needs are differently abled, and that there are trainable, educable and teachable, so that the special children are admitted to any educational institution without any discrimination.
TEA also aims to encourage the church, particularly Sunday school teachers, to identify children with special needs and reach out to them with the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that their spiritual needs are met. It aims tolighten the burden of the affected parents who have to take care of their children for 24 hours, to provide program for specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, mental retardation, multiple disability, hearing impairment, visual impairments, autism etc and to identify children with special needs. It also stresses on the need to help parents seek early intervention from experts and to fight against the narrow conceptions towards the differently abled.
“Children with special needs are created so that the glory of God may be magnified through them,” it stated.
TEA is committed in providing holistic education to the children with special needs, focusing mainly on children between the ages of 2-15 years. The Academy also works with children who have variety of disabilities, using modified curriculum, meeting the needs of each children depending on their disability. It also imparts Individualized Education Programme (EEP).
Besides the regular classroom education, TEA offers music therapy, physiotherapy, daily living skills, art and crafts etc with an aim to let the special needs children lead an independent life.
Presently, TEA house 20 children. Admission for 2014 academic session will start by 2nd week of January. Regular classes will start from February 10.
