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December 25, 2006
No Trained Teacher for Disabled in Government Schools
The following information was downloaded from the mailing list of "Disability and Development" with a cooperation of the publisher, Mr. Soya Mori.
Times of India, Saturday, December 23, 2006
New Delhi : Even as the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) had included inclusive education as a priority under the Xth Five Year Plan, Delhi government schools have failed to accommodate kids with special needs, stated a survey by Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) in collaboration with MHRD.
The state education department has claimed that there are a number of plans for such children and will take off soon. RCI is a statutory body of ministry of social justice and empowerment.
"As per the recent survey, out of 1,100 government schools in Delhi, only 800 admit kids with special needs. Thouth there are around 3,000 such kids studying in government schools, not a single school has a trained teacher or a resource centre for these kidss," said G B Singh, board member, RCI.
Talking about the apathy of state government towards kids with learning disabilities, Singh added : "The state government did not even send a single teachers to our training camps. Delhi should follow footsteps of other states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, who, according to the survey, have followed the RCI model on disabilities. The model states that each school should have as least one special educator and one resource centre."
Teaching kids with special needs without the aid of a special educator is also a punishable ffence, states RCI. "Under Clause 13 of the RCI Act, if you are teaching a child with disability without having a special educator in the school, it's a punishable offence for the head of school,"
said J P Singh, member secretary, RCI.
The state education department, however, admitted that the government schools lack facilities for those special kids but claimed that plans are aplenty for accommodating them in large numbers. "We do not have sizable number of children with disabilities in our school and we need to do much more," said Rina Ray, principal secretary, education, Delhi, Howeverm she added, we are planning to have atleast one special educator in each school. Also, atleast two schools in each district should be made disabled friendly where all teachers should be trained to handle such kids.
The government is also planning to integrate kids with severe disabilities into mainstream education. "Under SSA, we are planning to visit individual household and get kids with learning disabilities into mainstream. Special educators will also visit them and train them", claimed
Ray.
*Each country faces the same problem as India, lack of trained teachers for special education. In order to acheive inclusive education, specially trained teachers who can correspond to the needs of students with different abilities are essential. Please let us know the situation in your country.
Posted by jicafriends at December 25, 2006 02:48 PM