The Kozhikode office of Samagra Shiksha Kerala will launch a project to offer swimming training for differently abled students from the district.
Titled Building Elegant Attitude Through Swimming (BEATS), the project was meant to equip the students to handle natural disasters and enhance their life skills, said SSK officials on Sunday. They claimed that such a project was being implemented under the General Education department for the first time in Kerala.
The training sessions will begin on September 1, and 100 students will be included in the first phase. Visually impaired students from high schools and higher secondary schools within the Kozhikode Corporation would be given priority in the initial stage, they added. Both girls and boys may participate in the programme. Each batch will have 10 students.
SSK district project coordinator A.K. Abdul Hakeem said the students would be chosen through block resources centres, and the consent of parents would be mandatory. The District Sports Council and Bengaluru-based Equibeing Foundation, that works for the cause of the visually impaired, will associate with the project. The swimming pool at East Nadakkavu under the sports council will be used for the training sessions. The council will also provide trainers.
Sessions will be held for an hour from 8 a.m. Equibeing Foundation will train the trainers of the sports council. Each student will be monitored by a lifeguard. Vehicle service will be provided from their homes to the training centre and to schools thereafter. The students will be given food as well. The SSK has set aside ₹4 lakh for the first phase of the project.
The SSK officials said their effort would be to use swimming as a therapy for the differently abled. In later phases, students with autism, cerebral palsy, and movement disabilities would be trained, they added.
