CBSE finds many of its affiliated Schools not inclusive, lack special educators

Dear Colleagues,

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has pulled up its schools for not adhering to affiliation rules that make appointment of special educators to cater to differently-abled students compulsory.

Appointment of special educators was made mandatory in 2015 under rule 13(11) of the board’s affiliation by-laws to promote inclusion of students with disabilities/special needs in schools according to the provisions of the “Persons with Disabilities Act 1995” and in conformity with the National Policy of Education. 

Observing that many schools were not following the rule, Jaiprakash Chaturvedi, Deputy Secretary (Affiliation), said in a recent circular, “The management and the head of CBSE-affiliated schools are hereby directed to strictly follow the provisions and arrange to appoint special educators in schools.” He added that the schools will have to inform their managing committees about the provision for stricter compliance. 

But Mumbai schools have expressed that it was difficult to meet this condition. DAV School, New Panvel, has been advertising for a special educator for the last two years, but did not find any qualified professionals. “We have been trying to hire a special educator since 2015. This year, we advertised twice but still did not get anyone good,” said Jayashree Khandekar, principal of the school. 

Educators blamed it on the lack of courses available for special education. In Mumbai, only SNDT Women’s University, Churchgate and Juhu, offer a full course in special education, while few other private colleges offer short-term certificate courses. 

There are barely 300 special educators in the state for more than 16 lakh children with learning disabilities, said Dr Harish Shetty, a psychiatrist who suggested that instead of mandatory appointments, the board can train regular teachers on basic remedial education. “This way, the existing faculty can be used for remediation, while authorised centres can carry out the tests,” he said. He said the human resource development ministry needed to start more courses on special education. 

Some city schools are using counsellors in place of special educators or hiring them part-time. “We are unable to find full-time special educators, so our counsellor helps in remediation,” said Deepshika Srivastava. She added that although teachers have been sensitized in identifying students with learning disability, they could not pay individual attention to all because there were 40 to 50 students in each class.

Source: Hindustan Times- CBSE pulls up its Mumbai schools without special educators

RTI reveals Delhi's Schools not compliant to CBSE guidelines on disabled friendliness

This report filed by Mr. Manash Gohain in Times of India Delhi Edition and published on May 08 2016 titled "City schools tough place for disabled" based on over 160 RTI replies received by Ms. Abha Khetrapal of "Cross the Hurdles" reveals how equipped and serious Delhi is when it comes to providing quality education in an inclusive set up for children with disabilities. Here goes the story.



Most Delhi schools are not inclusive, and their differently-abled students are deprived of assistive devices or materials even though the Central Board of Secondary Education has issued guidelines on these. Replies to queries under the Right to Information received from the capital's government, government-aided and private schools reveal that most of the institutions have not carried out audits to establish the levels of the prescribed amenities.

Unfortunately , CBSE, having issued three guidelines over the years, too said in a reply to an RTI query that it had no information on access audits, compliance and action taken in case of non-compliance. The education board first issued guidelines on making school disabled-friendly way back in May 2005. It reissued fresh guidelines in October 2008 and then reiterated these in 2009, making it incumbent on schools to comply with measures suggested in the guidelines.

These included provision of support through accessible educational material and the availability of trained teachers, modification of the existing physical infrastructure and teaching methodologies to meet the needs of all children, including those with special needs, ensuring availability of study material for the disabled and talking text books, reading machines and computers with speech software and the induction of an adequate number of signlanguage interpreters, transcription services and a loop induction system for the hearing-impaired students.

TOI has copies of the 160 RTI replies received by petitioner Abha Khetarpal, President of Cross the Hurdles, an NGO that works with people with physical challenges.Only two of the schools claimed to have carried out the mandated access audit. In a majority of the schools, the queries about study materials, teacher training, infrastructure, access audit report and number of students with disabilities evinced "not applicable" as the response. Just five schools said they had visually-impaired students, and there was no data on students with disabilities like locomotor disability.

According Khetarpal, “The annexure in the 2009 guidelines clearly stated the things that schools were to provide in order to make them inclusive, failing which they would lose their affiliation. CBSE now replies that they do not keep a record of such information.“ The board told Khetarpal that affiliated schools only provide Open Text Based Assessment material in Braille, but this carries only 10% weightage in the final exams and is also meant only for Classes IX and XI. What about 90% of the study material, she asks.How would students with visual impairment cope?

Some private schools refused to divulge the information on the ground that they did not come under the purview of the RTI Act. So, there is no confirmed number on students with disabilities in regular inclusive schools and what they study . Khetarpal says that when asked this, CBSE said it not only didn't have the data, but that it also doesn't monitor compliance of its guidelines.

Source: Times of India