THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Parents of children with special Needs (CWSN) are a worried lot as the state government has allegedly stalled the posting of resource teachers in the Block Resource Centres (BRC) and DPIs in the current academic year.
Parents demurred the disinclination of the government in posting resource teachers in the wake of its granting aided status to 23 privates schools where CWSN are in large numbers. Parents point out that the children from economically backward communities cannot afford to engage resource teachers on their own.
R Sudhamony, a retired teacher and mother of a special child, told ‘Express’ that the state government was throwing the Central Act on CWSN (Person with Disability Act, 1995) to the wind. She said that CWSN are eligible to avail themselves of admissions to normal schools and to free education up to the age of 25.
The state government also had taken steps to facilitate Integrated Education of the CWSN. As per this facility, such students will have to avail the services of the resource teachers and resource rooms at normal schools.
Resource teachers from BRCs and DPIs are posted for this purpose. “In the private schools, we have to pay `800 to 1000 as monthly fee. As most of these students suffer from other ailments, their parents find it hard to foot the bill for education in private schools.
Moreover, the mentally challenged children and those with autism have a tendency to attack each other during bouts of extreme anxiety, she said.However, Sudhamony claims that if such children are admitted to normal schools, the chances are remote for them to get into such paroxysms. She said that the parents are of the view that the state government should appoint more resource teachers and open new resource rooms in schools.
Under the Integrated Education programme, special kids could be provided physiotherapy and other nerve stimulation services. But at present, government schools are bereft of any such facilities.
The parents also demanded that doctors, nurses, anganwadi workers and palliative care workers should be made to conduct periodical home visits. They also sought the inclusion of CWSN in the Ashraya scheme.
