CHENNAI: As many as 723 special educators, serving on consolidated pay for more than two decades in government run schools, have en masse filed petitions in the Madras High Court demanding the government to regularise their job as per the mandate of the laws that deal with education to special / disabled children and children with special needs.
They said most of them have been working since 2002 and were qualified to be appointed as special educators in government schools providing inclusive education as per the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), but the state government has not created even a single permanent post.
Justice CV Karthikeyan, before whom the petition came up for hearing on Tuesday, directed the Government of India and the Tamil Nadu government to file reply to the petitions by April 21 and accordingly adjourned the case.
The special educators, who have been working on consolidated pay for 20 to 25 years now, sought the court to issue appropriate directions to ensure free and compulsory education for each and every children with special needs/disability as per the provisions of the RTE Act and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPwD Act) and the provisions of the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) Act and the guidelines issued thereunder.
They also prayed for directing the government to create sanctioned posts and regularise the posts of the special educators in all government and government-aided schools in line with the teacher pupil ratio of 1:10 for primary schools and 1:15 for middle and secondary schools as envisaged by the RCI.
Advocate Kavitha Rameshwar, representing the petitioners, submitted that each special educator is allotted 30 schools in one bloc with an average of 5 to 25 special children in each school; the burden is so heavy that it takes them a minimum of one month to meet a particular student again. “This virtually eviscerates the very meaning of inclusive education.”
The counsel further said there is a requirement of 13,000 special educators as the number of special students is 1:30 lakh in the state. However, not even a single post is made a permanent post.
Pointing out that the Supreme Court has issued clear directions on the matter, Rameshwar stated that the state government has not taken even one step towards complying with the directions on appointing special educator or maintaining the pupil-teacher ratio, thereby violating the fundamental rights of special children guaranteed under Articles 21 and 21 A of the Constitution and violating the provisions of the RTE Act, the RPwD act, 20216, RCI Act, 1992.