MADURAI: As many as 202 teachers coaching differently-abled children under a Central government project have been doing so without getting salaries for nearly four years.
In addition, what happened to the lakhs of rupees disbursed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to fund their salaries and for special teaching aids still remains a mystery.
The teachers, working under Inclusive Education for the Disabled at Secondary Stage (IEDSS), a project undertaken by the MHRD, have not received salary for the past 44 months.
Though the MHRD transferred the funds, the State Education Department has failed to distribute their salaries and special equipment for the children, who include the visually-impaired, hearing-impaired, mentally retarded and orthopedically disabled, claimed the teachers.
Whenever the teachers raised the salary issue, higher authorities claimed that the Centre was yet to send the funds.
But when a teacher from Perambalur inquired with the MHRD, it gave a written reply stating that Rs 668.52 lakh, including Rs 355.76 lakh for special teachers’ salary, has been given to the State Education Department for the year 2013-14. An amount of Rs 312.76 lakh was disbursed as the first installment for 2014-15, said a 36-year-old teacher, showing copies of the documents.
This apart, though the Centre provided equipment for 7,965 children, the State Education Department didn’t distribute them to children, said the teachers.
Commenting on the issue, K Manoharan, Deputy Director of School Education (IEDSS), said though the funds from MHRD had reached the department, they were waiting for approval from higher authorities. When asked about inducting these special teachers as government recruits, he said it could be decided only by the State government. The project that was set up to educate special children was controlled by non-governmental organisations for over three decades. But various allegations, including misappropriation of funds, were made against them, thus forcing the Centre to take over the management since 2010-11.