When 14-year-old Naveen was thrown out of school, G. Senthil, 39, a medical psychiatrist who himself had learning disability, took charge of the teenager.
Senthil opened a school at his house in 2001 and started teaching Naveen, who went on to learn drawing, repairing of electronic gadgets, as well as his school subjects, with the emotional support of Senthil’s wife Devipriya, 33, a psychologist.
Now, Naveen, a diploma-holder, is running his father’s textile business profitably. Senthil and Priya have been chosen by the Tamil Nadu government to provide inputs for developing manuals to teach children with learning disabilities.
The two have been running their open school — Helix — for special children in Salem and Tirupur and have taught more than 70 children using novel methods and gadgets. The school maintains a 1:8 teacher student ratio from class 1-10.
“We have signed an MoU with IIT Delhi to use robots in classrooms to teach our children,” Senthil told Deccan Chronicle.
The couple also run a consultancy firm in human resource and market analysis. “We earn from our company and use a lion’s share of profits to teach the children,” they said. “We bear half the fees of every student,” said Senthil.
As soon as they married in July 2001, Priya went to Chennai for a three-month course in special education, he said.
“When we proposed to build our school, we roped in my mother-in-law Indirani and father-in-law Govindarajulu. They took care of the hostel and ensured that the classrooms were healthy,” Priya said. Indirani cooks for the students and Govindarajulu takes care of cleanliness.
Kumarappan, a parent, said his son, who has learning disability, is now able to read newspapers. “I was disappointed when I was told that my son has learning disability. This school has given me hope. I can see my child scaling up for Class X exams this year,” he said.
