# I. Conceptual Framework ndia is the second largest country in the world in terms of total population. In this country more than 80% of population lives in the rural areas with varied social, cultural, geographical and economic background. United Nations (UN) has estimated that, at least one person out of the ten of the population of any country is affected by some kind of disability. National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO, 1991), the visually handicapped in India are nearly 4.005 million in chronological age of 0-14 which constitutes 0.3 percent of school children. Everyone aims at reaching a definite goal, he seats a desire for distinction which has inner structure known as, "Level of Aspiration". According to Quaglia and Cobb (1996), the term aspiration has the following meanings: goals, expectations, dreams, intentions and performance motivation. Ball and Wiley, (2005) state that aspirations of children are "a reflection of what they wish to become and subsequently guide a number of factors that impact what they will eventually do in life." The importance of aspirations is highlighted by Sherwood (1989), who associates aspiration with goals and states that aspirations develop a will in students to "invest time, effort or money to attain a goal". The way of Visually Challenged Children is brought up is responsible for the type of personality he develops. The type of personality required for successful living in a culture can be consciously shaped developed. The problems of academic underachievement among the Visually Challenged Children are due to environ mental and personal factors. Environmental factors include parental, ambition, social expectations, peer pressure, competition, group cohesiveness, culture, social value and interest, sex, socio-economic status, self-concept, study habits and racial background. Education differentiates a human being from the beast, prepares an individual to encounter the challenges in battle of life. School is the specialized institution which takes care of child's education. The level of educational aspiration is directly affected by the degree of visual impairment. The blind students are unable to see anything what is happening, what had happened and what will happen under the sun? Generally they are facing so many problems in their day to day life. So, their level of educational aspiration is also likely to be affected due to their impairment and placement/educational setting. So such factors affect the students to attain their ambitions and goals in their educational life. According to an estimation of Rehabilitation council of India (1995) approximately 16,651 visually impaired children are enrolled in different school programs. Most of these school programs are located in the metropolises and other urban centers. Rural areas were about 80% of these children are located remain practically un-served by educational facilities. (Rupa Vohra, Nov.1998: Disability and Impairment, Vol.12). socio-economic status, educational aspirations, locus of control and personality factors are very much responsible for academic under achievement among the tribal blind students. In another study of Kanagala, Uma (2000) namely "perception of parental behavior and its impact on academic achievement of visually impaired" results were found that interpreted cautiously considering the small size of the sample. However, the general patterns of some of the findings were as expected some were new and can be considered important. Parental attitudes as loving, rejection and protection were considered. The subjects perceived their parents as loving 88.75% and protecting 87.30%. Minshew (2002) found that the visually challenged children are less well-adjusted than partially seeing and that adjustment of blind children is better in special classes than in regular classes. Agarwal (2002) conducted a study entitled "A comparative study of academic skills of visually impaired students studying in various educational settings" and reported that visually impaired students going to mainstream schools both in integrated as well as semi-integrated setting were good at problem solving and reasoning skills due to greater exposure to the subjects like Mathematics and science. The investigator concluded that visually impaired children should be admitted to mainstream schools in large numbers. Integrated setting should be promoted and strengthened. Special schools should be utilized to provide resource services as a supplement to integrated setting. Last but not the least important finding from the analysis of hypotheses was remarkable uniformity between visually impaired boys and visually impaired girls in academic skills. Both were equal in their performance. The investigator concluded that uniform education policy an procedures shall hold good for both. Gardner (2003) studied the educational and vocational aspirations of blind children. He found that these two levels are influenced by their learning environment. Research studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of inclusion in education practice, the positive effects on the educational outcomes of children with disabilities in inclusive settings (Katz & Mirenda, 2002) and the lack of any significant difference in the development of children with special needs in inclusive and special settings (Lal, 2005). Hefziba Lifshitz, Irit Hen and Izhak Weisse (2006) conducted a study on "selfconcept, adjustment to blindness and quality of friendship among adolescent with visual impairments". The self-concept and quality of friendship of 40 adolescents with visual impairments (20 in public schools and 20 in residential schools) were compared to those of 41 sighted adolescents. The findings indicate a similar self-concept profile for sighted adolescents and adolescents with visual impairments, although the scores of the participants with visual impairments were higher in all domains except their fathers' concept of them. Chandra Rakish and Koul Kabire (2006) revealed that no significant difference was found with respect to level of aspiration and level of education of visually impaired and orthopedic children and result also showed that no significant difference was found with respect to academic performance of visually impaired and orthopedically impaired children. Narimani Mohammad & Mousazadeh Tavakko (2010) Results indicated that impaired children had significantly less academic achievement as compared to the nonhandicapped. The significant difference was also found, between the academic achievement of males and females. Siba (2010) conducted study on educational practical for low vision children in Garo hills of Meghalaya and found that besides their regular study they have other interests also which they are practicing such as reading stories, singing interacting with others which reflect their interest in co-curricular activities. Ahmed, Aqueel (2011) in his M.Phill dissertation found that the two groups of students i.e. physically challenged and normal secondary school students have been found to be significantly different on real selfdimension of self -concept inventory. The mean differences favors the normal group of secondary school students, which clearly indicates that normal group of secondary school students, have a high real selfconcept as compared to physically challenged secondary school students The findings of the study of Dinçyürek, Sibel etal. (2011) emphasize the importance of computer use by orthopedically impaired individuals for enhanced improvement of their condition. In addition, the findings stress the need for training well-educated experts who can use technology effectively to enable adaptations for individuals who need special education in the European Union. The study of Pradhan and Soni (2011) on adjustment and anxiety in visually handicapped male and female adolescents was based on a sample of 400 visually handicapped adolescents, 200 male and 200 female. The tools used for adjustment were adjustment inventory by S.P. Kulshrestha and anxiety scale by D.N Sinha. Findings reported that there is no significant difference in the adjustment of visually handicapped male and female adolescents studying in Bhim Bhoi School for Blind, Bhubaneswar. The study confirmed that there is no significant interaction effect of visually handicapped adolescents and sex on adjustment in Bhim Bhoi School for Blind, Bhubaneswar. Jena (2012) in his study found that School setting and educational level do not have significant effect on orthopedically handicapped adolescents perceived control, selfesteem and academic performance. However, integrated school students showed higher perceived control, self-esteem and academic performance than All of above studies indicated the different problem and status regarding visually impaired student's academic achievement, self-esteem and other psychological and social aspect. After finding lack of researches on educational aspiration of visually impaired students this investigation specially undertake to explore the relationship of educational aspiration of visually impaired students. # a) Statement of the problem A study of Educational Aspiration of special needs students in relation to some factors. # b) Operational Definitions of the Terms Used i. Educational Aspirations The term Educational aspirations mean the estimation of an individual's ability for his future performance of the strength of his past experience his ability and capacity, the efforts that he can make towards attaining the goal. # c) Visual Imparity Generally, visual status refers to visual efficiency which is influenced by two factors i.e. acuity and peripheral vision. Then it is subdivided into two major group i.e. Partial vision and totally blind. # d) Special School Special schools are hose schools which impart individual instruction to the children with disabilities. Such schools provide instruction and techniques of special educations for severally disabled children or one or another type. These schools are residential in nature. Most of the special schools cater the need of children with single disability. # e) Regular/Integrated Schools Integrated education emerged out of compulsion rather than option. Integration emerged as the cost effective approach and therefore, the general education system started accepting the special needs children in general schools. Integrated education program adopts various models such as resource model, itinerant models, combined model, co-operative model and dual teaching model. # f) Objectives of the study The objectives of the present investigation are stated below:-1. To find out the level of educational aspiration of visually impaired children. 2. To compare the level of educational aspirations of partial vision students and blind students on the basis of types of school, locality and gender. i. Hypotheses 1. There exists a significance difference between the levels of educational Aspirations of partial vision students and blind students. 2. There exists a significant difference between the level of educational aspirations of visually impaired students studying in regular and special schools. 3. There exists a significant difference between the level of educational aspirations of the visually impaired students belongs to rural and urban areas. 4. There exists a significant difference between the level of educational aspirations of male and female visually impaired students. # II. Research Methodology a) Research Method Descripted survey method and inferential technique was used in this investigation. # b) Sample Keeping in view, the researchers has taken 200 secondary school students of both special and regular schools of four districts of Orissa State for the present study. The students were in the age range of 12 years to 18 years. 100 blind and 100 partially sighted students comprised of this study. The researcher has taken two special and two regular schools from four districts of Orissa state and 90 rural and 110 urban students and 89 male and 111 female students of 8th to 10th class level for the present study. # c) Instrument Used i. Educational Aspiration Scale The Educational Aspiration Scale (EAS) From -P (Hindi) prepared by Sharma & Gupta (1987) is ii. Personal Information Blank Personal information blank was used for gathering data from students regarding their gender, locality and type of imparity. As evident from the table1 that the mean score is 39.44 and the S.D. score is 10.07. It shows the level of educational aspirations of visually impaired students is low. 3.49 is significant at .01 level of significance. So, the hypothesis is accepted. Thus, there is a significant difference in the educational aspirations of partial seeing children and totally blind children. specially designed for secondary school pupils. It is an essential dimension of scientific measurement and necessary to develop specific test for measuring the Educational Aspirations of students of different grades. # III. Analysis and Interpretation # IV. Findings The present study investigates the differences existing between the educational aspirations of the partially sighted and totally blind children in both general and special schools in urban & rural areas also. On the basis of the data, its analysis and interpretations, the following findings have been drawn. ? An overview of the results indicates that the level of educational aspirations of the visually challenged children is low. ? The level of educational aspirations of partially vision children is higher than the totally blind children. ? The level of educational aspirations is higher in case of visually challenged children who are studying in regular schools than in special schools. ? The level of educational aspirations is higher in case of urban visually challenged children than rural visually challenged children. ? The level of educational aspirations is higher in case of male visually challenged children than female visually challenged children. This study gives a helicopter view about the educational aspiration of visually impaired children. Blindness is a major obstacle for the completely blind children. Teachers needs to provide psychological support to develop aspiration in these children. # V. Conclusions On the basis of this study it can be concluded that overall educational aspiration of special need student is below average. It is due to their physical disability which make them little frustrated. Blind students suffer more problems in comparison to children having partial vision. Special schools are beneficial for the visually impaired students because they provide a special environment and using special teaching techniques. It is recommended that more schools should be run for special need students. ![in his study found that level of educational aspirations of blind students in relation to socio-physiological determinants of academic under achievement among tribal blind students and found the students were not aware about the facilities provided by the Government of them. Duttaet al., (2014) "A Study of Adjustment, Level of Aspiration, Self-Concept and Academic Achievement of Visually Handicapped School Children of Assam"The study was based on a sample of 400 visually handicapped children 200 boys and 200 girls who were studying in the classes VI to X (age 12 to 16 years) in six visually handicapped schools of lower and upper Assam selected by using simple random technique. The descriptive survey method was used for data collection using (i) Adjustment Inventory standardized by A.K.P Sinha and R.P.Singh; (ii) Self -Concept Inventory standardized by Raj Kumar Saraswat; (iii) Level of Educational Aspiration constructed by J.C.Soni and (iv) Academic Achievement from School Record. The study reported that the adjustment of visually handicapped boys and girls was found similar on overall adjustment. It also revealed that there existed no relationship between (a) adjustment and level of educational aspirations; (b) adjustment and self-concept and (c) adjustment and academic achievement of visually handicapped children.](image-2.png "") 1Type of visual ImpairmentsNMeanSDPartial vision & Blind20039.4410.07 2Type of Visual ImpairmentNMeanSD't'Level of SignificancePartial vision10036.1110.253.490.01Blind10043.169.40 3Types of SchoolNMeanSD't'Level of SignificanceRegular School10034.5910.598.450.01Special School10043.158.51Glimpses of the table 3 that the mean differencethe hypothesis is accepted. Thus, there is a significantof educational aspirations of children studying in regulardifference in the educational aspirations of visuallyand special school are 34.59 and 43.15 respectively andimpaired students studying in Regular and SpecialSD are 10.59 and 8.51 respectively. Estimated t value isschool.8.45 which is significant on 0.01 level of significance. So, 4Types of Area NMeanSD't'Level of SignificanceRural11042.498.773.420.01Urban9035.5311.67Table 4 is indicating the estimated data ofis 3.42 which is significant at 0.01 level of significance.educational aspiration scores of visually impairedSo null hypothesis stands accepted that There exists achildren belongs to rural and urban locality. Mean valuessignificant difference between the level of educationalare 42.49 & 35.53 and SD are 8.77 & 11.67 of rural andaspirations of the visually impaired students belongs tourban belonging children respectively. 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