FIELD VISIT REPORT
The Department of Psychology had organized a field trip for the final year students to Jyoti Nilayam School on 10th December, 2019. This field visit was organized under the guidance of Ms. Christina Mariam Chacko and was attended by 37 students on a whole. This school is dedicated for the service to differently abled children belonging to various age groups and is run by nuns. The students reached their destination by 10:00 am. As they entered the school they witnessed their assembly by which they understood that they had a planned routine for the kids. As soon as the assembly got over the students came over and introduced themselves. The children were very interactive and happy. Within a short span of time they were familiar with their names. Then they distributed sweets to them and got to know more about them. The students understood that such a population was not attended to much. They had issues which could be reduced through training and medication. But due to lack of funds the school management was not able to provide the service they wanted to give. When the student spoke to their teachers they came to know about the difficulty involved in handling them and that proper training is required to teach them. Later the children were taken back to their classes and students had a session about their agenda. Here the sister in charge told them about their syllabus, exams and how they are made capable to lead their daily lives. The students were happy to hear that several of their pass out students was living lives independently and some of them had even gone for their higher studies. Once a differently abled child is born, their parents have a constant worry of who will take care of them after they leave; this school tries to reduce this tension of the parents by training their kids. Although this institution is facing a lot of financial and legal issues, it is trying its best to provide off the facilities to the fullest. As of now the school has only day scholars, they are planning to build a hostel as soon as possible. The session ended with few cultural programs by the children. This field visit was an eye- opener to the reality of schools handling differently abled children. These kids need a lot at attention and care for which there should be good facilities and faculties to handle. This field of work needs to be recognized and supported on a large scale. The students gained knowledge about it and hope to contribute to it in the future.
