CHENNAI: At least one in three diffabled persons in the State, falling in the age group of 5-19, are not attending any educational institution. This finding is contained in the recently released Census 2011 data.
While the census had enumerated 2.3 lakh children with disabilities, nearly 89,000 of them are said to be not attending schools and colleges. They either dropped out or never attended any institution. Of the 89,000, 55,000 children never attended any institution.
The situation is particularly worse for those diagnosed with mental retardation and multiple disabilities (combination of two or more disabilities). Of the 38,966 identified to be suffering from mental retardation, 22,416 were reported not attending educational institution. Similarly, of the 29,559 who were suffering from multiple disabilities, 17,051 were not going to schools or colleges.
Responding to the survey report, disability welfare activists said lack of education had adverse impacts. “This scenario makes them dependent on others. By not attending school, different avenues for an individual’s progress remains shut for them,” said S Namburajan, secretary, Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled and Caregivers (TARATDAC), adding the State government should focus on establishing more special schools in rural areas.
Smitha Sadasivan of Disability Rights Alliance pointed out to the flawed educational policy being followed. “A mere act of integrating classrooms alone isn’t enough. There must be a separate paper on handling special children for B.Ed aspirants,” she said.
Such children drop out after losing interest, primarily because they are not paid individual attention. She suggested that all teachers follow adaptive teaching and learning technologies.
Referring to apprehension by a few schools while admitting children with disability, Prince Gajendra Babu, educationist, said lack of acceptance was a great hindrance when it came to enrolment. “While the rich and affluent have the means to seek out the best special school for their wards, it is the poor who struggle. There is no mechanism in schools to ensure that the special children are cared enough,” Babu said. This problem of alienation can be solved by establishing a common school system based on the neighbourhood concept.