A Principal's Purview of Learning Disabilities in Contemporary Schools
School education in the 21st century has grown exponentially in terms of administrative dynamics, Key Performance Indexes (KPIs), challenges posed as well as the basic required expectations of the society from the school infrastructure. The focus of backend processes has shifted from the macro to the micro, thereby gaining and giving key insights into minute issues arising in the classrooms and covering the general functioning of the school as a whole. The role of the teacher has enhanced from an educator to a facilitator and the role of the educational administrator has altered from merely execution to charting out roadmaps, expanding the perspective, thought and functional horizon of the school as a unit. Teaching is a multi dimensional construct and is essentially based on communication. Any disruption of the communication channel leads to a faulty teaching-learning process. In the contemporary classrooms, amongst the many challenges, disabilities in general, and Learning Disabilities to be more specific, have grown to be a major cause of concern due to their latent potential for growth in numbers and difficulty in early identification. As school administrators/heads are coming to terms with the fact that Learning Disabilities pose a major challenge to a smooth and successful teaching-learning experience, it is imperative to understand their perspective in the day-to-day dealing with Learning Disabilities. A study was thus conducted, by the authors, to understand the school Principal’s purview on the present level of awareness, challenges and training programmes that exist, on Learning Disabilities. The study covered Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Maharashtra to gauge a broader spectrum of results coming from school principals, under different systems, schools, languages, backgrounds and regional settings. This paper reveals the findings of the study with a special emphasis on the administrative perspective of school principals. The fact that they feel a foundation course on Learning Disabilities should be a part of the teacher training programme at education colleges, is one of the few key insights gained by the authors. It also gives an analytical insight into the specific levels of preparedness and counter measures to deal with Learning Disabilities in contemporary school education system. Dr. Smita Phatak is a professor at the Tilak College of Education, Pune and has an illustrious career as an educator & a facilitator for education. Ms. Pinaze Dubash has completed her B.Ed from H. G. M. Azam College, in 2009, M.Ed from Tilak College of Education in 2010 and is, at present, pursuing her Ph.D from Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune under the guidance of Dr. Smita Phatak.
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