Regular schools will take in most of 22 lakh special kids:Government | India News –


NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that under the rebooted Samagra Shiksha Scheme, majority of the 22.5 lakh children with special needs (CWSN), or differently abled children, would be admitted to regular schools where teachers would get trained to cater to their needs while ensuring their right to education.
Responding to a PIL by Rajneesh Kumar Pandey seeking adequate number of trained teachers in the special schools opened for differently abled children, additional solicitor general Madhavi Divan informed a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna that under the Sarva Shiksha scheme, those children who can manage themselves would be admitted to regular schools so as to ensure their assimilation with the normal children.
However, Pandey’s counsel Shoeb Alam said the Centre and the state governments cannot abdicate their statutory duty to provide an adequate number of trained teachers at the schools exclusively meant to cater to the education and development of CWSN. He said the infrastructure and the teacher student ratio in schools exclusively meant for CWSN are abysmal at many places.
The bench sought a clarification from Divan whether admitting the CWSN in regular schools would lead to closure of the special schools. Divan said only those CWSN who have less than 40% disability would be admitted to the regular schools, but was quick to add that she would seek instructions from the government on this.
Alam said the central point urged by the petitioners is about the obligation of the schools, including of the state governments concerned, to ensure appointment of duly qualified special teachers to impart quality training to the child with disability in the ratio enunciated in the central enactments as also the schemes propounded by the central government from time to time and service conditions of such teachers.
The petitioner also said that it needs examination whether the central schemes relied upon by the states could be carried forward even if these were not in consonance with the subsequent enactments in the form of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, the Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016 and the Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992.
The Centre in its latest affidavit stated that “As per the data available with Unified District Information System for Education, there are 22.5 lakh children with special needs in the country.”





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