NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has taken a note of the “dearth” of special education teachers in the government schools as seen in the case of a large number of teaching vacancies.According to the counsel of a petitioner, there are around 1,500 vacancies for the post of special education teacher in Delhi government schools. “It has been pointed out that there are a large number of vacancies of special education teachers and despite repeated efforts, these are not being filled. There is a dearth of special education teachers in the schools in Delhi,” the high court said.
The court’s observation came while dismissing an appeal by the Delhi government challenging the February 2017 order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) asking it to consider the candidature of an applicant for the post of special educator and process the appointment, if found qualified and eligible.
Special education programs are designed for those students who are mentally, physically, socially or emotionally delayed and special educators are hired to meet the appropriate needs of each such child.
The court said the applicant was qualified and eligible for the post and it was not going into the legal issues raised by the Delhi government in the appeal. Initially, a petition was filed by 41 applicants before the CAT. The plea, however, was later pressed by only two of them.
The Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) had issued an advertisement inviting applications for filling up of the posts of Special Education Teacher among others. The candidature of both the applicants was rejected on the ground of incorrect filling in of the OMR sheets. The rejection was challenged by them and one of the two applicants was later appointed. With agency inputs