CHENNAI: The Central government informed the Madras High Court that only 25.95 per cent of schools in Tamil Nadu have children with special needs friendly toilets and only 62.86 per cent of schools are provided with ramps and made barrier-free.
The department of school education and literacy under secretary Alok Jawahar made the submissions in a detailed reply to a plea seeking to provide adequate infrastructure for such schoolchildren. As per unified district information system for education (2018-19) 37,183 schools in TN have been provided with ramps.
Besides 59,152 schools (all management) have children with special needs (CWSN) friendly toilets, the department of school education under the Union Ministry of Education said. The plea also sought for safe transportation facilities to special children, the government in its reply said, “Under the inclusive education for CWSN component of Samagra Shiksha, for access to and from school and to facilitate retention of CWSN enrolled in general schools, there is a provision of transportation and escort allowances for such children in classes I to XII. For 2020-21, Rs 1498.10 lakh has been estimated for transportation allowance for 45,002 CWSN and Rs 369.42 lakh has been estimated for escort allowance for 9,996 CWSN for Tamil Nadu,” the detailed submission said.
HC refuses to accept DVAC’s report on min
Chennai: Refusing to accept the report filed by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) that gave a clean chit to Minister SP Velumani in a corruption complaint, the Madras HC observed that it would decide as to whether a fresh inquiry has to be ordered on the corruption complaints filed against the minister. DVAC had concluded that prima facie there was no case made out against the minister. “If that is the case, can the complaint by the petitioner itself be referred to an independent agency?” the court asked, and adjourned the matter to September 28.