Meerut Institute of Special Education (MISE) is a training institute to train teachers to teach and educate intellectually disabled.

MISE was established in 2008 by Meerut Children Welfare Trust (MCWT), a charitable organization which works for education and rehabilitation of intellectually disabled since 1994. It started with a school of special education for intellectually disabled named Disha School of Special Education. At that time, there was a great paucity of trained educators and professionals in the country to fulfill the special educational needs of such children.

MCWT in its endeavor to further strengthen its services and also to provide trained special educators to various upcoming special/integrated schools for disabled started Meerut Institute of Special Education (MISE), with a course “Diploma in Special Education in Intellectual Disability” in 2008, which was recognized by Rehabilitation Council of India, New Delhi.

The institute along with Disha Special School located in the same campus trains efficient special educators who are providing their services in various parts of the country.

History of Special Education

In India, mentally challenged children constitutes 2.5% of the population. These children through lesser privileges have many abilities and potentials which can be developed to compensate for their disabilities; wholly or partly. This group of children requires specialized education which in turn requires a structured approach, expert handling, personalized system of teaching, multi-sensory approach of learning, and patience on the part of the parents and teachers. All this is generally not available in the current conventional school scenario. Unfortunately, only few of the children in our country still have access to special education. One of the reasons for this is paucity of qualified teachers who can fulfill special education needs of such children.

The history of training of professionals in the field of mental retardation is of recent origin in our country. First such training centre was started in 1953 in Mumbai by a voluntary organization which offered a diploma in special education. Two more centres, one in Chennai (Madras) and other in Mumbai initiated training program in 1971. By 1980, there were nine more special education training institutes in the country. By 1995, the number of centres offered training increased upto 40. Out of these, 27 were recognized by the RCI.

Currently there are 1002 Institutes in the country to train special educators in intellectual disability, hearing impairment, visual impairment and multiple disability. Out of these 269 institutes are located in Uttar Pradesh.