Teacher training and recruitment is, unfortunately, one of the toughest challenges of special education in Pakistan. Degree programs for special education do exist, but most graduates do not have the hands-on experience essential for working with special needs children.
Therefore, SCEI takes the responsibility of training its own staff as well as hiring teaching aides. This even includes professionals who don’t have a strong academic background, but who have shown compassion for these children and are willing to work hard to be good educators.
As part of our teacher training efforts, we have held training sessions at places like the DOW Medical College. We have also organized the first Special Needs Strand at the annual SPELT Conference in Karachi.
We have always maintained a high student-to-teacher ratio, regardless of where we stand financially. We charge tuition fees, but we never turn down any child if s/he can’t afford to study at the institute.
Currently, we are dependent on donations to cover our operating expenses. Our aim, however, is to become self-sustainable to that we can bear the costs of running such an operation and to help the greatest number of special needs that we can.