PRASHAST : A Disability Screening Checklist for Schools

Why PRASHAST?

Disability is a complex and multifaceted concept. The concept and meaning of disability differs across territories along numerous associated legal, political and social constructs. It is generally viewed as a physical or mental condition(s), or both, that limit(s) an individual’s movements, activities and sense perceptions. Persons with disabilities are forced to face a lot of discrimination due to prejudices and biases in society. The most vulnerable area that falls prey to the discrimination is “EDUCATION”. Disabilities are often incurable, however early identification and intervention may facilitate optimum management and also prevent exacerbating the consequent conditions.

In India, Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 recognises 21 disability conditions. It has replaced Persons with Disabilities (PwD) Act, 1995 which recognised only 7 disability conditions. It is in harmony with the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Further it provides a legal framework, generates awareness about rights of persons with disabilities, and promotes equitybased inclusion.

The Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 ensures Free and Compulsory education to all children, including Children With Special Needs (CWSN). In the context of schools, provisions of the RPwD Act 2016 and RTE Act 2009, implies that all children with disabilities should be identified as early as possible, their special needs arising due to disabilities should be appropriately addressed and they should be supported to realize their full potential within the society. The identification process of children with disabilities should begin ideally at the moment of birth.

The field realities across the country, however, provide ample instances, where children with disabilities remain unidentified, even after getting admission in school, due to lack of awareness among school functionaries and the general population. This primarily occurs in cases of disability conditions where symptoms completely lack, or have minimum, visual manifestations that can be easily identified by parents or teachers. Disability conditions recognised by RPwD Act 2016, such as physical challenges, acid attacks, or dwarfism are easy to identify but disabilities like mental illness, specific learning disabilities, hearing impairments or autism are comparatively difficult and complex to identify without appropriate training.

Needless to say, the early and appropriate identification of condition/s of disability facilitates special attention for implementation of required educational intervention. This in turn can bring a meaningful difference in the lives of children with disabilities. Need based interventions that are implemented in inclusive educational settings, as early as possible helps children to grow with confidence and self-respect. As a result, children with disabilities can purposefully engage with society.

A survey was conducted in the year 2019, by the project team, to understand and gain information about the action taken by the States and Union Territories of India regarding the screening and identification of disability conditions and related challenges. The survey revealed the following facts - 52.9% of states were observed to face difficulty or confusion in understanding characteristics and/or symptoms of some disabilities. A majority of the states claimed to face confusion with the following disabilities: Mental Illness, Speech and Language Disability, Learning Disabilities, Parkinson’s disease, Haemophilia and Thalassemia. It was also revealed from the responses that those states that were not facing any confusion in disability conditions, had involved special educators or medical experts in the process of identification of CWSN. Approximately 76.4% of states had involved both Regular Teachers and Special Educators for the process of identification of Children with Special Needs. Lack of awareness and knowledge about the various disability conditions among regular teachers emerged as the major reason for not involving them in the identification process.

A Total of 8 states have either finalized or are in the process of finalizing their own checklists for the identification of CWSN namely, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Puducherry, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. In addition, Uttarakhand and Jammu & Kashmir are in the process of developing checklists for the identification of CWSN. The lack of identification and screening tools hinders appropriate and timely identification of the CWSN.

To support teachers in the initial screening of children with disabilities, PRASHAST has been developed by CIET-NCERT. Part-1 of PRASHAST is for screening of all school children in order to recognise children who may have a disability. The results of Part-1 and Part2 of the PRASHAST is a preliminary step and facilitates referral for further diagnosis. Early screening ensures access to appropriate educational intervention for children with disabilities.

Teachers and PRASHAST

The PRASHAST is designed for use by the regular school teacher as they spend maximum time with students. Teachers are uniquely positioned to engage with the growth and development of children. Over a period of time, teachers can observe a child in different situations, such as classroom, playground, co-curricular activities like music, art and craft. Any child not developing typically (as per accepted norms) is easily identified by the teachers and can be referred for further diagnosis. Additionally the teachers serve as reliable contact points with parents for eliciting relevant information.

What is PRASHAST?

PRASHAST is divided into two parts, Part-1 and Part-2 for the preliminary screening of students in schools to facilitate further referral to assessment camps for disability certification.

• PRASHAST Part-1 is for the use by regular teachers for first level screening. It contains objective type items that need to be tick marked, and the resulting data of all the students is to be handed over to the school head.
• PRASHAST Part-2 is for the use by special educators/counsellors/school heads for second level screening and tentative listing of disabilities in accordance with the 21 categories of disability conditions recognized by RPwD Act 2016. The results of the second level screening is to facilitate further identification and certification of disabilities.

PRASHAST is prepared in a manner that is user friendly, written in simple and clear language, assimilates and presents the behavioural manifestations of the 21 disabilities, mentioned in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPwD) 2016.

The PRASHAST enjoins the involvement of regular teachers and special educators/ counsellors/school heads/ school management committee in the screening process. The PRASHAST is a safeguard against unscientific diagnosis and needless labelling of children.

If some children in the class seem to display lack of interest, low attention, appear distracted, not participating in learning activities like other children, and seem to be sleepy and fatigued, exhibit challenging behaviours, these can all be due to either environmental or disability conditions. Physically, some of these children may not seem to be like other children in the class. This does not necessarily mean that they have a disability. With the help of PRASHAST teachers have a safeguard against jumping to inaccurate and unscientific conclusions. Usage of PRASHAST is designed to facilitate clarity about the child’s condition.

It is good to bear in mind - a child’s lack of participation in learning activities is not often not due to the ‘lack of compliance’ as often perceived.

Points to remember while using the PRASHAST:

• The language used by the child at home, if different from the medium of instruction used at school, it ought to be considered.
• PRASHAST is only for screening and referral. Do not label or diagnose on the basis of this tool.

Development of PRASHAST

PRASHAST aims at enhancing the participation of regular teachers in the systematic screening of students, studying in regular schools for possible disability conditions, assuming school as the smallest unit of data collection.

Procedural steps adopted for the development of PRASHAST are mentioned below:

• Status Study Survey. The process of development started with the Survey in the month of June 2019. 34 states and UT’s, out of 36, responded. The purpose of the survey was to become familiar with the procedure/s adopted by States and UT’s for screening and identifying school students with disabilities. The Survey revealed, only 8 states (23.5%) namely-- Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Pondicherry, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have initiated the development of checklists for identification of disabilities but not covering all the 21 disabilities as listed in RPwD Act 2016.
• In house development of draft PRASHAST was done during July-August 2019
• Vetting and Finalization Workshop - The PRASHAST Draft version, developed inhouse was shared with experts during three days vetting and finalization workshop (21 August to 23 August 2019). The expert group included, Medical Doctor from Mediiskool Health Services Pvt. Ltd., Director Bone Marrow Transplant, BLK Super Specialty Hospital, clinical psychologist, state inclusive education (IE) coordinators (Haryana, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir, and Assam), representative RCI, Special educators, disability experts from National Institutes and content/regular teachers.
• Field Tryout-The PRASHAST was field tested in 29 schools across three states. The participating schools included 11 schools from Hunsur Block, Karnataka (26 to 27 November 2019), 14 schools from Chillika Block, Odisha (30 to 31 January 2020), and 4 schools from Bhoirymbhong Block, Meghalaya (18 to 19 February 2020). The feedback collected from the field testing team, comprising of cluster resource persons; block resource persons, special teachers, content teachers, head teachers, experts from the vetting workshop and adopted block team from respective Regional Institutes of Education (NCERT) indicated, no difficulty in use of draft PRASHAST, irrespective of background in disability studies.
• Psychometric Properties of PRASHAST
  • Validity
    The items of PRASHAST were finalised in a 3-day workshop with experts across the country and then tested in the field. A few items were modified and deleted based on the field experience and feedback obtained from the teachers and special educators, and disability experts.
    PRASHAST was administered in 100 schools in Chandigarh. Usage of PRASHAST Part-1 resulted in the listing of 3482 students. PRASHAST Part-2 was administered and 637 students were referred to assessment and certification camps. The suspected disability data based on PRASHAST was then compared to certified disability data, obtained from the assessment and identification camps. The suspected disability data based on PRASHAST and disability certification data obtained from assessment and certification camps was found to be 95.76% similar. 
  • Reliability of PRASHAST
    The PRASHAST comprises 63 items pertaining to 21 disabilities. The internal consistency of PRASHAST using Cronbach Alpha is 0.801. As, α = 0.801 falls into an acceptable range, the PRASHAST possesses good internal consistency.
• Language editing - The language editing of the field tested PRASHAST, was done by the Publication Division (PD), NCERT, approved and empanelled language editor.
• External Vetting by National & International Experts – In November 2021, national and international experts were contacted with a request to vet the PRASHAST. The experts were from UNICEF India, University of Northampton, UK; University of Pennsylvania, USA; Monash University, Australia; and NIEPA, India. The consolidated observations of the these experts are given below:
  • The production of a checklist that is accessible to both specialist and nonspecialist teachers is an important initiative undertaken by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and is timely in its response to contemporary Indian legislation (specifically).
  • The PRASHAST serves as a preliminary screening tool and not to be used for formal diagnosis, leading to the needless labelling of a child as having a disability. This message is reinforced on page 7 of the booklet. The significance of the message is related to the PRASHAST, designed for teachers whose range of experiences, qualifications and abilities are likely to be disparate.
  • It is also essential to recognize that those professionals who are qualified to provide formal diagnosis, including for example psychologists and speech and language therapists, have access to well-established diagnostic procedures and have received focused training in their implementation. In this context the guidelines for usage on page 10 are helpful and important.
  • The division of the PRASHAST into two sections, intended for use by specialist teachers and one for those with possibly less experience and expertise is an interesting and sensible approach.
  • The purpose of the PRASHAST is carefully articulated and provides an opportunity to begin a process of identification and support that leads to further professional intervention.

PRASHAST Part-1

Guidelines for School Heads

1. School Heads to ensure that the general teacher is properly oriented by Special Educator/Resource Teachers/IE Coordinators/SCERT/DIET/ Counsellors, in the use of PRASHAST for initial screening of students. For this one day, or half a day orientation meeting/workshop/discussion can be organized in the school.
2. Each regular teacher is to be provided one copy of Part-1 of PRASHAST per student. The School Head should collect all the PRASHAST Part-1 filled by the regular teachers.
3. The School Head is to refer all the filled PRASHAST Part-1 to Special Educator/Resource Teachers/Counsellors for further screening using Part-2 of PRASHAST. In case there are no Special Educators/Resource Teachers/Counsellors in the schools, the School Head should do the screening using PRASHAST Part-2 with the help of nearby Primary Health Centres (PHC).

Guidelines for Regular Teachers

1. Before using PRASHAST, attend the orientation meeting/workshop and read the document carefully.
2. PRASHAST Part-1 is to be used for screening all the students in a class. PRASHAST Part-1 to be administered by the class teachers with the help of subject teachers where required. Teacher should tick (✓)/ “YES” according to the behaviour of the student described in the PRASHAST Part-1.
3. Teachers with the help of School Heads to share their observations with parents / guardians of the screened students based on the PRASHAST Part-1.
4. Before using PRASHAST Part-1, teachers should observe the student for 2 weeks or more in different contexts, for example, academic, social, behavioural, mobility and orientation.
5. Information related to the screened students is confidential and is to be shared with concerned parents/guardians and authorized personnel only.

Guidelines for Special Educators/Resource Teachers/Counsellors

1. Orient the general teachers for using PRASHAST Part-1.
2. Collect the completed PRASHAST Part-1 from school heads and then use PRASHAST Part-2 to validate the findings of PRASHAST Part-1.
3. To provide counselling and guidance to the teachers and parents/guardians of the screened students.

Checklist of PRASHAST Part-1

NAME OF STUDENT: _________________________________ CLASS:___________ AGE:_______
GENDER: ____________ SCHOOL: ________________________SCHOOL ID:__________________
CITY: _________________ STATE: ____________NAME OF FATHER: _______________________
NAME OF MOTHER:_______________________ HEIGHT: _________ WEIGHT: ________________

Source : NCERT