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‘Children with special needs ignored’
The allocation of Rs 1,122 crore for the education sector in the Budget announced on Monday has not gone down well with disabled rights groups and experts. Many believe the Budget has “no provisions for children with special needs”.
Finance minister Dr A K Walia allocated 10 per cent of the total plan outlay for the education sector in the Budget. In the offing are upgrade of schools and new classrooms in schools in unrepresented localities.
“How many schools in Delhi are physically accessible to children with special needs? When we talk of infrastructure, we should keep this in mind,” said Javed Abidi, Director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP). “We need to invest in the three foundations of education (for children with special needs) — physical access, teacher training and curriculum.”
In a recent ruling, the Delhi High Court had asked all schools to ensure at least one trained teacher for children with special needs from April 1. “This budget has made no provision for the move,” Ashok Agarwal, a lawyer and an activist, said. “If there are around 925 government-run schools in Delhi, then there should be an equal number of special teachers.”
“Schools should have ramps, disabled-friendly toilets, classrooms and other such facilities. A child with special needs has to be mainstreamed. Teacher training should be taken more seriously,” Abidi said.
“NEED MORE RESOURCES”
With Right to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act being notified from April 1, Agarwal said there will be need for more resources. The committee appointed by NCERT to develop a framework for implementation of the Act recommended conversion of double-shift schools into single-shift schools. “For that you need more schools and hence more money,” Agarwal said.
Compared to the Union Budget allocation for the education sector — 3 per cent of the total GDP — Delhi’s allocation, 10 per cent of the total plan outlay, seems generous. Analysts, however, point out the cut.
Yogita Verma, Director, Resource Mobilisations, Child Relief and You (CRY), an NGO said: “If we compare the figures quoted in this year’s Budget speech to last year’s, we see the allocation has decreased from 10.32 to 10 per cent.”
CIVIC BODY disappointed
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is not happy with the allocation despite its students receiving a subsidy of Rs 500.
Prithviraj Sahni, chairperson, MCD Education Committee, said: “By increasing the subsidy on school uniforms, they have not done us a favour. Last year, we were given half of what we had asked for. We have buildings to repair and infrastructure to improve.”
In the last three years, Sahni said, Budget allocation for MCD schools has seen a cut. Sahni also called the decision of the government to start pre-primary classes in Sarvodaya Vidyalayas an “encroachment”.
“We had an agreement with the Delhi government in 1970 that the MCD will run classes from Nursery to Class V in its schools and the government-run schools will have classes from VI to XII. But with pre-primary classes being started in their schools, they are encroaching on our right.” The aim is to weaken the MCD schools, he added.
(2010-03-24 / Indian Express)
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