‘Engage one spl edu teacher per school with CWSN enrollment’

Srishti Lakhotia, MP, 10 Sept 2023, Kolkata: The new State Education Policy (SEP) 2023 notified by the state Higher Education department recommended the state to engage regular special education teachers at a scale of at least one teacher per school with Children with Special Needs (CWSN) enrolment in a phased manner to ensure each school has at least one such teacher within the next five years. This needs to be carried out after taking into consideration the concentration of CWSN candidates in schools. 

Furthermore, it has been recommended that the state takes a comprehensive policy for reallocation of CWSN enrolled in schools with lower concentration to schools where their concentration is higher. However, this may be implemented keeping in mind that these students do not need to travel more than one kilometre from their habitation. 

In case they need to travel more than five kilometres, then supportive travel arrangements have to be made available for them. Apart from this, the policy also stated that since not all schools with CWSN students have the “scope” for construction of additional toilets, existing toilets may be retrofitted to make them barrier-free and accessible. 

As per the Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2020-2021 data stated in the policy, around 66 per cent of schools under School Education department (SED) have Children with Disabilities (CwD) students, while around 30 per cent schools have CwD friendly toilets and over 80 per cent have ramps. 

“This is an area of improvement for the state as providing special infrastructure for CwD is essential for assisting them in completing their school education,” it was stated in the policy. It has been also stated that while the national average is roughly 60 per cent, nearly 84 per cent children in the state study in government or government-aided schools as per the UDISE 2020-2021 data. 

For the children with benchmark disabilities, it has been recommended that guidelines and standards for home-based schooling be developed based on the audit in line with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPWD) Act 2016. 

Courtesy & source- Millennium Post

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/engage-one-spl-edu-teacher-per-school-with-cwsn-enrollment-532432