Chandigarh: Special books having large-sized letters, free spectacles and magnifying glasses will be provided to partially blind students by the Chandigarh Education Department, an official said.

"We have got the compact discs containing the whole matter of the books from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Normally there is a font size of 12 or 14 in normal books. But we will print the books after increasing the font size to 48," S.K. Setia, director of public instructions (education), Chandigarh, told sources.

This is an initiative of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan project of Chandigarh and will cost the education department between Rs.200,000-Rs.300,000. It costs Rs.15 per page amounting to Rs.3,000 to 4,000 per book, said Setia.

"I have also written to NCERT to publish such books separately for special students as no one else is doing this. It will also help to reduce the cost of publication if they publish it in bulk.

"We have conducted a survey among the government school students of Chandigarh. In the survey we have identified 3,000 students who are partially blind or are suffering with very low vision.

"We medically examined them to know the extent of visual impairment. Depending upon the needs, we have distributed spectacles and magnifying glasses to them," said Setia.

"But still there are many students with severe vision problem who can not read properly. They are 40 in number and we will distribute all their curriculum books in larger fonts, free of cost to them," said Preet Pal, project coordinator.

Schools will provide lockers to the students where they can keep their books and have to return them back after their final exams, added Preet Pal.

"Even in my school we have identified some students with very low vision. They cannot see the black board clearly in spite of sitting in the first row of the class. Such books will be of great help for both the students and teachers," said Sunil Kumar, principal, government model senior secondary school, Sector 22.

"This step of the education department will certainly prove handy to bring the students with special needs into the mainstream. Many times they could not do well in studies as nobody pays heed to such problems," he said. IANS