Lok Sabha Question No. 3454 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-08-08
Subject: Education Facilities for Disabled Students
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Midhun Reddy, Maddila  Gurumoorthy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3454

TO BE ANSWERED ON 08.08.2022

## Education Facilities for Disabled Students

## 3454. SHRI P.V. MIDHUN REDDY: SHRI MADDILA GURUMOORTHY:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a)  whether the Government is aware that the education system is not accessible to disabled students  and  that  children  with  mild  to  moderate  disabilities  are  usually  excluded  from education; and

(b)  if  so,  the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  make  schools  accessible  and  train  teachers during the last five years and the budget for the same?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRIMATI ANNPURNA DEVI)

(a)  &  (b)  The  Centrally  Sponsored  Scheme  of  Samagra  Shiksha  launched  in  2018-19,  has dedicated  Inclusive  Education  component  for  the  education  of  Children  with  Special  Needs (CwSN). It aims to look at education of CwSN in a continuum from Pre-Nursery to Class XII. The scheme covers all children with special needs with one or more disabilities as mentioned in the schedule of disabilities of the Rights of the Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 studying  in  Government,  Government-aided  and  local  body  schools.  The  objectives  of Inclusive Education (IE) under Samagra Shiksha are as under:

-  To enable all children and young persons with disabilities to have access to inclusive education  and  improve  their  enrolment,  retention  and  achievement  in  the  general education system.
-  Identification of children with disabilities at the school level and assessment of her/his educational needs.
-  Provision  of  aids  and  appliance  and  assistive  devices,  ICT  resources  like  JAWS  & SAFA, as well as transportation, escort & scribe allowances to the children with special needs as per requirement and stipend for all girls with special needs (from pre-primary to XII).
-  Removal of architectural barriers in schools so that students with disability have access to classrooms, laboratories, libraries and toilets in the school.
-  Supplying appropriate teaching learning materials, medical facilities, vocational training support, guidance and counselling services and therapeutic services to children with special needs as per their requirement in convergence with line departments.
-  General  school  teachers  will  be  sensitized  and  trained  to  teach  and  involve  children with  special  needs  in  the  general  classroom.  For  existing  special  educators,  capacity building programmes will be undertaken.

A separate provision for financial support of Special Educators has been made under Samagara Shiksha in order to appropriately address the educational requirements of children with  special  needs  from  elementary  to  higher  secondary  levels.  Samagra  Shiksha  also  has provisions for ramps, handrails and disabled friendly toilets for barrier free access to schools for all children.

In  addition,  CBSE  being  sensitive  to  the  needs  of  disabled  students  provides  several exemptions/concessions to CWSN as defined in The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 such as issuing authority of Medical Certificate, facility of Scribe and compensatory time, appointment  of  Scribe  and  related  instructions,  fee  and  special  exemptions  for  class  X  like exemption from third language, flexibility in choosing subjects, alternate questions /Separate Question  and  special  exemptions  for  class  XII  like  flexibility  in  choosing  subjects,  separate question paper and questions in lieu of practical component.

The integrated scheme of Samagra shiksha provides support for training of Teachers, School  Heads  and  Teacher  Educators  in  the  State  Councils  of  Educational  Research  and Training  (SCERTs)  and  District  Institutes  of  Education  (DIETs)  as  per  specified  norms. Further, the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education launched a National Mission to improve learning outcomes at the Elementary level through an Integrated Teacher  Training  Programme  called  NISHTHA  -  National  Initiative  for  School  Heads'  and Teachers' Holistic Advancement on 21 st August, 2019 under the Centrally sponsored Scheme of  Samagra  Shiksha.  The  face  to  face  training  was  conducted  from  August,  2019  to  midMarch,  2020.  However,  in  view  of  the  COVID  pandemic,  online  NISHTHA  training  for elementary  teachers  was  launched  on  6 th October,  2020  and  the  remaining  training  was conducted online by NCERT on the DIKSHA platform using high quality professionally made e-content.  The  concerns  of  Children  with  Special  Needs  (CWSN)  are  also  addressed  in NISHTHA training, wherein a specific module on inclusive education has been included in the training.

In  2021-22,  NISHTHA  has  been  extended  to  Secondary  level  and  for  Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN). NISHTHA 2.0 for secondary/senior secondary level teachers was  launched  on  29th  July,  2021.  NISHTHA  3.0  focusing  on  FLN  for  teachers  and  school heads of pre-primary to class V was launched on 7th September, 2021.

The details of teachers trained in the last five years is given below:

| Year    |   Number of teachers |
|---------|----------------------|
| 2018-19 |              3139876 |
| 2019-20 |              4945727 |
| 2020-21 |              2678996 |
| 2021-22 |              1336837 |
| 2022-23 |              1141986 |

Source: PAB of Samagra Shiksha

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