Thiruvananthapuram: Despite the Supreme Court directive, the Kerala government has thrown caution to the wind by not appointing special educators for teaching disabled students in schools. As “incusive education” considered the need of the hour, the approach from the Kerala Government in this regard is considered a clear sign of negligence.
Following a case in Uttar Pradesh,In October 2021, the Supreme Court issued a ruling mandating all States to appoint special educators in schools and submit action reports. However, Kerala is yet to implement any action in accordance with this order.
During the academic year 2022-23, approximately 1.5 lakh disabled students were enrolled from pre-primary to higher secondary classes. This number is estimated to have risen to 1.6 lakh in the current year.
As regards Kerala, currently it has 2,886 special educators on a contract basis under Samagra Shiksha Kerala. The government informed the Supreme Court that 9,300 special educators are required, whereas 8,249 teachers are registered with the Rehabilitation Council of India, with no further steps for a prompt recruitment on the anvil.
There should be one teacher for every five students at the primary level and one for every ten students at the secondary leve
as per the RPwD (Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Act, l. As of now, the appointment ratio stands at one teacher for one or more schools. This hetic workload disrupts them from being able to bring adequate attention to disabled students.
The position of Special Educator has not been established in schools, resulting in not even temporary appointments.
The Estimate Committee, led by KK Shailaja, has noted that despite the existence of a rule mandating the presence of special educators in every school, only one educator has been appointed for multiple schools. The committee also recommended that timely initiation is needed to appoint special educators permanently in each school to strenghthen the system to better support disabled students.
