The state commissioner for persons with disabilities has directed the Delhi government, the three municipal corporations and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to immediately hire at least two special educators per school who specialise in various forms of physical or intellectual disabilities.
The move is aimed at correcting the skewed pupil-teacher ratio for children with special needs in city schools
In an order issued on December 31, 2019, the The state commissioner for persons with disabilities — a quasi-judicial body — had said that all the schools in Delhi should have special education teachers in Autism Spectrum Disorder, intellectual disability, learning disability, deaf-blind, visual impairment, hearing impairment and Cerebral Palsy.
State commissioner for persons with disabilities TD Dhariyal said the directions were given after consulting with experts and interacting with parents of children with disabilities.
“Simply putting students with disabilities in schools is not enough. We need to make them learn like other children and for that we need specialised teachers in sufficient numbers. We need to work on increasing the learning levels among these children and we cannot achieve that without fixing the skewed teacher student ratio in schools,” he said.
According to an affidavit submitted by the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) in the Delhi High Court last year, only 26% of the 1,329 special educators posts in government-run schools in the Capital are filled. The board, which conducts recruitment exams for government schools in the city, had also informed that of the 1,540 sanctioned posts of such teachers for schools run by the civic bodies — east, north and south — only 31.3% posts (482) are filled.
{{/usCountry}}According to an affidavit submitted by the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) in the Delhi High Court last year, only 26% of the 1,329 special educators posts in government-run schools in the Capital are filled. The board, which conducts recruitment exams for government schools in the city, had also informed that of the 1,540 sanctioned posts of such teachers for schools run by the civic bodies — east, north and south — only 31.3% posts (482) are filled.
{{/usCountry}}The commissioner has also instructed all the above mentioned bodies to maintain different pupil-teacher ratio for different disabilities. “The schools should cater the needs of children with special needs as per their requirements. As per the generally accepted criteria, the pupil-teacher ratio for children with Cerebral Palsy, visual impairment and hearing impairment should be 1:8. For children with intellectual disability, ASD and Specific learning disabilities it should be 1:5 and for deaf-blind and a combination of two or more disabilities mentioned it should be 1:2,” he said.
The commissioner has asked all the authorities to fill vacant posts of special education teachers on top priority well the next academic year starts in April 2020. They were also directed to submit a report mentioning the number of children with disabilities enrolled in their schools, type of disabilities, number of special educators on board and number of such teachers required, with the commissioner’s office within three months.
Binay Bhushan, director of the DoE, said that the department will examine the order and draw plan to implement all the recommendations given by the commissioner. “We have also sent a requirement of around 970 special educators,” he said.
Similarly, officials at the three civic bodies and the new Delhi Municipal Council said that they have already sent their requirements for the special education teachers to the DSSSB. “We have already communicated about our requirements to the board. The teachers will be hired once we will receive new dossiers from the board,” said an official of the east civic body.
ENDS