A school established by the Society for the Deaf in 1965 at a rented property near Sealdah today is a two-storeyed building with scores of students.

The Ideal School for the Deaf, situated in CF Block, has stepped into its golden jubilee year. The celebrations began with an art and cultural festival of the silent artistes in January.

Ritabhari Chakrabarty and Mir dropped by to cheer the students. “I’ve heard about this school and congratulate you all on reaching the landmark. I’m happy to come here for the first time,” said Mir. 

Also present was district mass education extension officer, Subhajit Mondal. “This school has worked very hard over the last 50 years and am sure they will continue with the good work. We try to support them as much possible, arranging for mid-day meals, computer grants etc. They have started classes IX and X from this year and we are trying to appoint special teachers for them,” said Mondal. “Paintings by the school’s students feature on our greetings cards, along with their names and the school’s.”

Down memory lane

After running since 1965 at a rented property near Sealdah, the school shifted to Salt Lake in 2008 after receiving land from the urban development department. 

“The shift wasn’t easy for us,” recalls Shibapada Chakraborty, a retired teacher-in-charge who was present on the occasion. “Many of our students come from far away and Salt Lake was not accessible to them. Many students dropped out and we came to the township with only 13 to 15 students.” 

They then started organising camps in Baguiati, Ultadanga and even Diamond Harbour in order to find students and educate parents about the existence of school for special children. “We provide hearing therapy to enhance their residual hearing ability along with speech and language therapy. Some students are able to name objects but we need to teach them how to form small sentences,” said Chakraborty.  

“It’s easy to detect a blind child but not as easy to spot a hearing-impaired one,” said the present teacher-in-charge, Sajal Chakraborty. “Here others make fun of a person when he doesn’t reply so their education doesn’t start early.”

The school receives grants from the state government but that is not sufficient. “To make ends meet, we turn to NGOs and clubs. They help our students buy books and other essentials,” said the teacher-in-charge. 

This year the school has got upgraded till Class X. “They can now walk out with a Madhyamik certificate,” said Sajal. “Our students are gifted at art and craft. They have won competitions even at the national level. Some are studying at Rabindra Bharati University (RBU) and others have established themselves as artists. Many work at ITC, KFC, Cafe Coffee Day too.” 

Arati Sankha Chakraborty, a retired teacher who had spent nearly 30 years with the school, was all praise. “These students work for hours at a stretch to make jewellery or paintings. I doubt if students of mainstream schools have that kind of patience and concentration.”

Parents are grateful to the school. “My daughter Jhumpa was initially fine but when she was one and half years old a fever left her deaf. It was a difficult time. Last year, we found out about this school and enrolled her here. Now she is learning new things and stays happy,” said Preeti Naskar.

Anamika Das travels to the school from Barasat with her son Soumodip Das. “The school helped me cope with depression. They do parent orientation, telling us how to we deal or communicate with our kids,” she said. 

Art workshop

The festival saw students, present and past, creating works of art. Ankana Pramanik of Class VI was busy drawing a mehendi pattern on her teacher’s hand. “I love to dance and draw,” expressed the girl through sign language. 

Monidipa Das, a resident of Beleghata, has now shifted from here to a mainstream school and will be taking her Madhyamik exams this year. “I was surprised to see Mir here. I’ve seen him on TV. We got to click pictures with him today,” she beamed.

Another former student, Rinku Bhadra, is an art teacher at CK Block’s Rekha Chitram now. “I am also training under artist Ashish Kabasi and have participated in exhibitions. This school built my confidence,” she said, before sitting down to paint at the workshop.  

Twenty-two-year-old Swastik Jana’s painting were on display. He is now a student of RBU and his works have even been exhibited in Japan.

Utpal Pramanik and Hemanta Sahoo, both 2014 pass-outs, are currently working at KFC. “This school is like family to us and we try to attend every event here,” they said.