TOI, Mar 23 – 2013

It is always a tough decision to make when it comes to a child’s education, and if your child has special needs, it gets even more difficult. Most parents would admit that they would any day prefer to send their children with special needs — like those with learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism and dyslexia — to mainstream schools so that they can grow up in a natural environment.

However, while a number of mainstream schools in the city are open to children with special needs, it appears that they are not enough. Most parents complain that it is quite a task to find a suitable institute for the educational needs of their wards who need special attention. Among other things, like lack of sufficient attention, parents say that in the mainstream schools, seats for special children are limited and the fee is exorbitant.

The problem is not as innocuous as it sounds, especially when some parents are willing to go to any lengths to secure the best possible education for their children with special needs. For this, if they had to start a school of their own, to help their children and others like them, so be it.

These are the valiant parents from Gurgaon who, faced with the impossibility of finding the right place to educate their children, decide to establish institutes for children with special needs, for their wards and for others like them. “There are mainstream schools which cater to children with learning disabilities and special needs but they are not enough. The number of seats in these schools is limited and different schools have different criteria for admissions,” says Sangeeta Rathi of Malibu Towne.