Norway helps with Braille equipment

Norway helps with Braille equipment

JAKARTA (JP): A three-year project to develop the use of
Braille in seven blind resource centers and 40 special schools
around the country was officially launched on Thursday.

A total of US$17.99 million in soft loans to be returned in 25
years has been provided by the Norwegian government to finance
activities ranging from the training of teachers to a campaign to
raise awareness of the plight of the blind, the Ministry of
Education and Culture's director of basic education, Achmad D.S.
said.

The project, which is known as the Quality Improvement of
Schools for the Blind, actually started this year and has already
provided Braille printing machines and laboratory equipment to
some of the seven centers, he said.

Fourteen teachers and two ministry officials are scheduled to
be sent to Norway for postgraduate studies in Braille, he said.

Printing machines have already been distributed to centers for
the blind in Jakarta, Bandung in West Java and Pemalang in
Central Java.

The other centers are located in Denpasar, Mataram,
Ujungpandang and Payakumbuh.

"Hopefully by mid 1999 all of the centers will have a
machine," Rosyid Rosihan, the ministry's head of special schools
for the handicapped said. (edt)