ALAPPUZHA: As the allotted time for the work experience events was almost to end, Ajay Balu, a Class V student from Rahmania School, Kozhikode, was busy crafting items from waste materials.
A regular participant at the State School Science Fair for the past three years, the visually impaired 10-year-old boy was thrilled to learn arts, attend the event and acquire more skills. “I have learnt to make craft items from waste materials and made swings, tables, chairs etc here. I have been trained by my teachers for the past two months and am excited to participate in these events,” says Ajay.
What is more exciting is that Ajay was trained by a visually impaired instructor from Malappuram. Noushad T has been working in the field of teaching art and craft to students with special needs for more than two decades now. “Being a visually impaired person, I was trained by several teachers in my school days. Now I am passing it on to these children,” he says, adding that children with special needs are skilled in arts. “There may be challenges. These children, however, show a talent for comprehending and completing tasks quickly. It is an advantage,” he adds.
As many as 957 students from 43 special schools across the state participated in the work experience category for visually and hearing impaired students in LP, UP, high school and higher secondary sections, held on Saturday. The competition was held in 22 categories.
At another end of the hall was G Vishnu, a Class X student, making life-like sculptures out of clay which won him the first prize in the category. Vishnu, a hearing-impaired artist, had bagged the first prize in clay modelling competitions for the past five years in the State School Science Fair in the work experience category and was also the first prize winner in cartoon and painting competitions in the State School Arts Fest.
Vishnu, a student of Fr Agotino Vicini’s Special School in Kochi, has been trained by Kochi-based sculptor Stanley from a very young age. “Training kids with difficulties is a task in the initial stages. But when they find interest in the craft, they grasp it quickly. Vishnu is an exceptionally talented student and you can see that in the art he made with years of training,” said Stanley.