Dreams To Deaf Children

Little Flower School: Giving Voice, Words and Dreams To Deaf Children

Our writer visits Little Flower School in Chennai and is amazed with the dedication shown by the staff as well as the talent and eagerness of the children. Nobody can really tell these children are deaf – they are so fluent in listening, understanding and speaking English as well as Tamil!

Smiles, Smiles and Smiles! This is how I was welcomed at the Little Flower Convent Hr. Sec. School in G.N.Road, Chennai. Occupying a huge area near Gemini flyover, it is a lush green place filled with young enthusiastic children. The school was started way back in 1962 with one child; today it has 535 young minds. The school supports an excellent environment promoting not just education but all hidden talents they posses. With national and state award winning stints in both art and sport genre, the school also has been giving cent percent results at the board, says the Principal.

The school aims in promoting education both in English and Tamil medium, free of cost, to all children. It trains teachers in the modern methodologies of teaching the deaf and works untiringly to integrate them into mainstream schools in order to provide them equal opportunities from an early age to lead a normal life like the rest. Also, deserving students are provided hearing aids free of cost with nominal repairing cost.

Also the parents, especially homemaker mothers, come there out of their own will helping and engaging themselves in the noble cause. For an outsider it looks like a perfect environment for a child to learn, grow and live.

As I was speaking to a few girls of standard I, I found them very excited to tell me their experience. They shared their artwork, a girl of II standard showed me her sketches, and all the girls in the class showed me their project on EVS.

The teacher to student ratio is quite small, in comparison to other schools. For most classes it is around 5-10 students for every one teacher. The school is very keen on organizing cultural and sport festivals, with distinguished and honorary guests every year, in order to inspire the young children.

All in all, Little Flower School has created a holistic environment for the development of deaf children. Not just for the purpose of education, but for overall growth as individuals to achieve their goals and dreams.

- The Better India online edition.