General informationsAn Introduction to INJAINJA (acronym for Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles -
French National Institute for Blind Children) which operates
under the authority of the Ministry for Employment and
Solidarity is a National Public Establishment of Curricular and
Special Education for the blind and partially sighted. It is governed by decree No. 74-355 dated 26 April 1974. Since its inception, INJA's task has been to provide
visually impaired youths with a gateway into the world of
sighted people. By facilitating access to knowledge,
communication, social skills, INJA's aim is to develop
independence and social integration. INJA has both day school and week-time boarding facilities
for blind and partially sighted students from the beginning of
primary school to the end of secondary school, either through
in-house instruction or by integrating them into mainstream
education. Standard National Education
core curricula are taught at INJA. INJA also provides care
for infants and small children from 0 to 6 years of age and to
their families in the framework of an early support system for
the visually disabled. It offers its visually impaired students the advanced
technological and computer resources of its own department for
technical compensation of disabilities (S.C.T.H.)
and provides the computer technology and adapted school
textbook materials required for their education. Rooted in
INJA's history, a legacy of unique know-how perpetuates the
spirit of
Valentin Haüy, the school's founder, and of Louis Braille, student and thereafter teacher at the
Institute where he developed a universally used reading and
writing system that bears his name. INJA's object is to enable
visually impaired youths to become responsible, active
individuals by developing their independence of thought and
action and thereby foster their integration into society. A personal
plan whose aim and object is "the pupil to instruct and the
person to build up" accompanies students throughout their
education at INJA. The plan is adjusted as the student develops and focuses on
four particular, complementary schemes:
a core curriculum plan
an educational and developmental plan
a health and social welfare plan,
an integration plan | 
