ICT based special education assessment framework for inclusive education in India

According to RTE Act 2009/2010 in India, free and compulsory education has to be provided for children of age 6 to 14 years. There are several implementation challenges for providing inclusive education to all specially for slow learners, children with learning disabilities, children with mental retardation and having multiple disabilities. Although some ICT based tools are developed for children with visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical challenges, little efforts were put for providing education to children with mental retardation. Providing education to mentally retarded children is a big challenge, because special educators need to assess child's Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and functional ability in order to plan educational activities personalized to his individual needs and capabilities. In order to understand child's functional capabilities, standard assessment tools like Functional Assessment Checklist Programming (FACP), Grade Level Assessment Device (GLAD), Madras development programming system (MDPS), Aarambh needs to be used. In general, special educators need to assess child's functional level in order to plan his/her Individualized Educational Plan (IEP). Special educators spend considerable amount of their time for preparing assessment reports which is a time consuming process. Also, the details captured using assessment tools is not available in the electronic form. This paper discusses the challenges faced by special educators in this regard and proposes an ICT based educational assessment framework for planning and executing individualized education for children with mild mental retardation. It explains various interfaces that can be provided through this framework to parents and special educators for assessing, planning, teaching and measuring child's progress.