First Residential School In Asia-Pacific Region For Special Children

The first residential school in Asia-Pacific region for children who have specific learning disorders is to be set-up in Visakhapatnam. The school will initially cater special children only of four categories i.e. Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia and Dyspraxia.

“The proposal to set up the school has been accepted by the present government and the chief minister. The school will be set up in Visakhapatnam for the children who have specific learning disorder”, said Anantha Duraiappah, Director, UNESCO MGIEP.

He added, “We want to start up with four major categories initially and later open for more. We are already talking with the experts from UN for what and how the school will be catering the needs of special children.”

The UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) organized a distinguished lecture by Dr. Richard Davidson, William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Founder & Director of the Centre for Healthy Minds Richard Davidson, on ‘Well-being is a skill’.

Davidson, who is also the member of the governing board of UNESCO MGIEP, explained in his lecture the four components of well-being: Awareness, Connection, Insight and Purpose.

He said, “Our brain changes in response to experience and training. We can shape our brain in ways that promote humanity and compassion.”

The lecture was attended by over two hundred and fifty participants including teachers, educators, policy makers, ed-tech experts, students as well as novices of socio-emotional learning, psychology and psychiatry.

In an exclusive interaction with BW, Richard Davidson shared insights on how secular version of meditation practices can be beneficial for children to learn to pay attention and to regulate their emotions which can end up with better performance in schools. He also suggested that these practices should be included in school’s curriculum starting from pre-school children.

“Children will be able to taste the calmness and the clarity that meditation provides. We have also developed a curriculum called ‘Kindness Curriculum’ which has been adapted by 25,000 school all over the world”, said Richard Davidson

Davidson will be part of collaborative research with MGIEP towards the peace and sustainability education.