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)