Jamshedpur, Aug. 28: Instead of paying lip service to the integration of special children in civic society, a school has gone ahead to ensure their integration through their economic independence.

Bal Vihar School, Sonari, a school for special children, has good reason to cheer, as it has tied up with a training institute to impart its students with job-oriented skills.

Four of its students who have passed Class X from the National Open School have been selected for specialised training at the Hyderabad branch of the Mumbai-based Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Deaf, an autonomous organisation of the central government.

The four selected students — Saurav Kumar (19), Amit Kumar (17), Pankaj Kumar (19) and Vibhash Kumar (20) — are currently undergoing training at Hyderabad.

With new teaching methods, hearing-impaired people can be taught to speak.

Bal Vihar, an institute where hearing-impaired children are taught academically by specially trained teachers and staff, has recently tied up with Ali Yavar Institute for meritorious students to develop their skills related to helping them find their vocation, and hence, employment.

The new managing committee chairman, Om Narayan, also the vice-president (safety and shared services) in Tata Steel, was one of those who took an initiative in making this tie-up happen.

At the two-year training at the Ali Yavar Jung Institute, students are trained in specialised skills like computer application, welding and fixing, among others, in a state-of-the-art institute.

With board and lodging free, even more heartening is the fact that the institute gives a 100 per cent job guarantee to the students on completion of the course.

“After getting trained, these special children can look forward to a much better future. They are trained in skills to enable them get jobs better than that of a peon,” said G.M. Sharan, the secretary of Bal Vihar School.

Sharan also said that this training initiative was undertaken as Bal Vihar only imparts academic training, which restricted the knowledge and skills of the hearing impaired. Vocational training gives hearing-impaired students an edge in the competitive job market, and live a life of dignity and respect.

“Specialised training would enable our students to stand on their own feet, rubbing shoulders with ‘normal’ people,” he added.