CHENNAI: Over 20 districts do not have a special school for persons with disabilities, as only 22 government and 50 government-aided special schools are functioning, catering to four disability categories, across the state. The CAG report on the welfare of differently-abled persons department revealed that most districts do not have special schools.
According to the audit report, special schools were not available for visually impaired children in 20 districts, hearing-impaired children in 10 districts and locomotor-disabled children in 26 districts. The report also reveals most of the districts do not even have special schools run privately.
The report also points out that 38% of the sanctioned posts have been lying vacant in the 22 government schools since Mar 2022. “The proposal to recruit contract teachers was initiated in March 2021 and was under consideration for quite some time, without any tangible results even as of December 2022,” the report states.
The report also highlights the lack of a new state policy for differently-abled and poor management of state funds as the State Advisory Board formed in 2017, to advise the government on policies concerning disability, had met only thrice since March 2022 against the mandate of conducting a meeting every six months.
“CAG report findings are our long pending demands,” said Namburajan S, vice-president of Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled and Caregivers. He urged the government to act on the recommendations of the report.