Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE) announced that it will be launching a Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD) chatbot on the NBSE website on the occasion of International Day of Disabled Persons on 3 December.
The chatbot, an online tool, for SLDs on its website and can be accessed at https://nbsenl.edu.in and will help parents and teachers with answers to commonly asked questions on SLDs.
In its statement, the Board asserted its commitment to create inclusive education as emphasised by the New Education Policy 2020 (NEP ’20) and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act 2016.
The RPwD Act 2016 defines inclusive education as a “system of education wherein students with and without disabilities learn together and the system of teaching and learning is suitably adapted to meet the learning needs of different types of students with disabilities”.
Further, NBSE affirmed its commitment to supporting individuals with disabilities to receive the right accommodations for various state-conducted examinations. They have already issued a notification elucidating guidelines on accommodations and requirements to include students with SLDs at the school level, available at https://nbsenl.edu.in/cms/document/174/notifications, the statement said.
SLDs, which include Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, along with Dyspraxia, recognize the differences in the way people’s brain function, process information, and learn. Individuals with SLDs have average or above average IQs, but struggle with processing language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself as a difficulty to comprehend, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations.
Nearly 5-15% of children struggle with SLDs in India. The actual extent is not known, due to a lack of awareness and low levels of formal diagnosis (especially in local languages) in our country. As per global estimates, it could be as high as one in five students. This means that over 150 million individuals including 35 million school-aged children in India are affected by SLDs, NBSE stated.
Some of history’s greatest achievers such as Albert Einstein, Agatha Christie, Steve Jobs, Roald Dahl and Abhishek Bachchan had or have SLDs.
The board highlighted that Specific Learning Disabilities (SLDs) should be identified early in individuals, so they can receive the right support and accommodations in the classroom and for assessments, and don’t fall through the cracks of the education system and drop out early. Challenges faced by individuals with SLDs who do not receive necessary support and interventions include low learning outcomes and poor academic performance in school, high risk of dropping out, low self-esteem, high anxiety, and higher risk of depression or suicide.
The SLD chatbot has been developed in partnership with ChangeInkk Foundation in Delhi, a nonprofit committed to creating pathways of success for neurodiverse individuals from cradle to career, in particular, those with SLDs by enabling an inclusive ecosystem.
ChangeInkk Foundation is doing the pathbreaking work of bridging the massive awareness gap to support people with SLDs in India, NBSE commended.
