HYDERABAD: In a communique to the Commissioner and Director of School Education (C&DSE ) and Telangana State Council Higher Education (TSCHE) and other universities in Telangana, the commissioner of Rights for Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) has directed them to issue guidelines to the educational institutions under their ambit to ensure that the provisions of PPwD Act are implemented.
Commissioner B Shailaja has also directed the educational institutions to send a status report on the implementation of various provisions of the Act till March 31, 2018, by September 30. The State commission will then consolidate an annual report which will then be placed in both houses of Assembly. This circular comes close on heels of the Supreme Court verdict that calls for steps to be taken for ensuring inclusivity in regular schools.
With regards to the inclusivity, Telangana has done little on its own accord. What steps it has implemented fall under central schemes. “The activities are also not undertaken in classroom teaching. Recruitment of special educators has also been pending despite several representations. When it comes to facilities in regular government schools, the State again has fared poorly,” said S Kalpagiri, national convener, Special Educators Forum.
Expressing disappointment over implementation of the Act, an official in education department said there was no communication between the disability and education departments. As a result, the condition of inclusivity in state-run regular schools is below par. “No teacher training has been conducted since 2014 and for the first time last year, the distribution of aid was conducted.
Parents are not given awareness talks. Nor is there scope for curriculum adaptation in absence of such a specialised wing in SCERT,” he said. In the circular, the commissioner states that she has received several complaints and representations regarding non-implementation of RPwD Act particularly on facilitating inclusive education, adult education, free education with benchmark disability, among others.