Space Insight programme launched for visually impaired students

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KUALA LUMPUR: The National Planetarium has launched the Space Insight programme to identify the best approach to provide astronomy education to students with visual disabilities (OKU).

The Planetarium director Azreena Ahmad said to this end there was an ongoing competition for trainee teachers at the Teacher Training Institute’s Special Education Campus from June 19 to Sept 9, with results to be announced in October.

The competition was aimed at generating effective teaching tools to provide a clearer insight and understanding on astronomy for such students, she told Bernama.

She said the competition was organised in conjunction with the National Innovation Movement Programme 2013 under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The idea for the Space Insight programme was sparked when a group of visually impaired students visited the Planetarium and brought about the realisation that such children could not grasp or appreciate the subject as the present exhibits were unsuitable for them, she explained.

“We feel that the visually impaired should have equal opportunities with normal students as their syllabus is the same. Only the learning methods are different,” she said. — Bernama