RCI Provides Teacher Training Courses for the Deaf
Rehabilitation Council of India provides courses for which helps deaf individuals to become professional teachers. See the video to know more about the courses.
All disability related courses (Hearing Impairment HI / Visual Impairment VI / Intellectual Disability ID etc.) and teacher training courses are managed by Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), New Delhi. There are many courses that are being offered by RCI across the country - D.Ed. / B.Ed. / M.Ed in HI/VI/ID, DISLI, DTISL etc. After doing these courses, the professional is registered with RCI and given a Central Rehabilitation Register (CRR) number. As per RCI Act, passed in 1992 - RCI registration is mandatory for all professionals who are working with disability, otherwise there can be punishment / fine.
You all must be knowing that in deaf schools across the country, most teachers are hearing. Why? Because many deaf people do not know how to apply and get qualifications to become a RCI certified teacher of deaf. I will tell you.
You can become RCI certified teacher of deaf in two ways -
Indian Sign Language teacher - for this you need to complete a two year Diploma in Teaching ISL. In short it is called as DTISL. DTISL course is currently being offered in only three institutes in the country: ISLRTC, New Delhi, HWSPSHI, Panchkula, Haryana, IDBA, Indore As an ISL Teacher, you can get a job teaching interpreters in a different course (DISLI) or to teach deaf students in deaf schools. After PM Modi announced ISL as a language subject, there will be a huge demand for ISL teachers in the country.
Subject teacher (Eng/Maths/SS/Science etc.), for this you need to complete a D.Ed. or B. Ed in Special Education (Hearing Impairment). There are many training institutes in the country which offer D.Ed. in Spl. Ed. (H.I.). However only hearing people apply for the course as accessibility is not there, but last year for the first time - in HWSPSHI, they had 25 deaf and 5 hearing people in a D.Ed. (H.I.) batch. This was made possible by ensuring that there was full access for both deaf and hearing students - teachers knew ISL and interpreters were there for all the classes.
After completing D.Ed. in Spl. Ed. (H.I.) can apply for jobs in deaf schools as teachers of classes from Preschool till Class VIII. Both courses (DTISL and D.ED / B.Ed ) are important to improve the deaf education in India as we want good deaf teachers who can teach ISL and also those who can teach subjects such as English, Maths, Science etc. as bilingual teachers.
Good news, RCI has announced the centralized online admission process for 2021, so deaf students who are 12th pass and interested in becoming teachers can apply through RCI website. There is no exam, and admission will be based on the percentage in Class 12th. The cut-off for D.Ed. courses is 50 % and for DTISL course is 45 %. The admission will start from 31st Aug and will be till 31st Sep, 2021. Then the merit list will be announced. Please see more details on RCI website http://rehabcouncil.nic.in/ You can also contact the institutes - ISLRTC/ HWSPSHI / IDBA for more guidance and support.
