Lok Sabha Question No. 2762 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-07
Subject: Assessment of Education of Children with Disabilities
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Rajeshbhai Naranbhai Chudasama, Debasree Chaudhuri

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.2762 ANSWERED ON 07.08.2023

## Assessment of Education of Children with Disabilities

## 2762. SHRI RAJESHBHAI CHUDASAMA: MS. DEBASREE CHAUDHURI:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  conducted  any  assessment  regarding  the  education  of children with disabilities;
- (b) if so, the details of percentage of the such children who are currently studying, State/ UT-wise;
- (c) whether the Government has adequate number of trained teachers to provide education to children with disabilities and children with special needs;
- (d) whether  the  Government  is  providing  any  satellite  based  online  education  for  these children, if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the  steps  being  taken  by  the  Government  to  provide  maximum  opportunity  for education to the children with disabilities?

## ANSWER

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

(a) to (e)  The Ministry of Education is implementing the Samagra Shiksha - an integrated scheme for School Education, under which children with special needs from Pre-Primary to Class XII, as per Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016 are covered. As per UDISE 2021-22,  the  Children  with  Special  Needs  (CWSN)  enrolment  (Class  I  to  XII),  is 0.88% of total enrolled children. The State & UT-wise enrolment of CWSN in percentage is at Annexure-I.

Under    Samagra  Shiksha  scheme,  the  inclusive  education  component  provides  for Student specific interventions, upto Rs.3,500  per  CwSN  per  annum  which  includes  (i) Provision of aids and appliances, (ii) Access to and development of teaching learning material as per requirement etc. (iii) Provision of facilities like transport/escort facilities for children with  severe  disabilities,  assistive  devices,  support  staff  (readers,  amanuensis)  etc.  (iv) Provision of large print text book, Braille books (v) Provision of home based education for children with severe &/ multiple disabilities.

Further,  Support  for  CWSN  girl  students  is  provided  @ Rs.200  per  month  for  10 months to encourage their participation in the school system.  Identification and assessment camps of children with disabilities at block level under which support is given upto Rs.10,000 per camp for identification of children with disabilities. Equipping Block Resource Centres (BRCs) by providing support upto Rs.2.00 lakh per BRC (once in 5 years) with equipments & Teaching Learning Materials for individualised learning support for CwSN.

The scheme also provides for engagement of Special Educators who may be posted at the  block  or  cluster  level  as  per  the  requirement  and  can  operate  in  an  itinerant  mode, covering a group of schools where children with special needs are enrolled so that each child with special needs is adequately covered.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has proactively taken many initiatives to promote the accessibility of education such as: PRASHAST -  A Disability  Screening  Checklist  for  Schools  -  a  mobile  app  that  covers  the  21  disabilities, including the benchmark disabilities as per the RPwD Act 2016, has been developed for early screening and identification of children with disabilities at the school level. Barkhaa Series is  a  supplementary  'Graded  Reading  Series'  formulated  with  the  objective  of  enabling children to develop reading skills during the early years, as a pedagogic tool aimed at helping the children of Classes I and II in learning to read with meaning and to arouse in them the urge to  read  more  and  more. Teaching Learning Resources in Indian Sign Language -This  initiative  realizes  and  promotes  inclusion  of  students  with  Hearing  Impairment  in mainstream education. More than 935 Universal Design of Learning (UDL) based textbook videos,  prepared  by  NCERT  are  available  on  DIKSHA  along  with  10,500  ISL  dictionary words. Audio Books - The textbook is available in e Pub talking book format which can be read through Text to Speech (TTS) app and also in audio format, using drama and sound of animals,  picture  description  etc.  are  developed  with  the  aim  to  enhance  accessibility  for Children  with  Visual  Impairment  (CwVI)  and  also  for  realizing  the  need  of  anytime  and anywhere  access. PMeVIDYA -  Under  PM  eVidya,  12  DTH  channels  (one  class,  one channel)  initiative  many  live  programs  are  broadcast  daily  to  facilitate  students'  learning through  leveraging  the ICT  solutions. One  of  the  live  series  is  'Teaching  Learning Interventions  for  Inclusive  Classrooms'.  Each  episode  is  of  half  an  hour  duration  with  a mandatory  ISL  interpreter.  More  than  594  episodes  worth  297  hours  broadcast  time  are available as archive on NCERT official YouTube channel.

*****

ANNEXURE  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PART  (A)  TO  (B)  OF  THE  LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2762 ANSWERED ON 07.08.2023 ASKED BY HON'BLE MP SHRI RAJESHBHAI CHUDASAMA AND MS. DEBASREE CHAUDHURI  REGARDING  'ASSESSMENT  OF  EDUCATION  OF  CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES'.

## Percentage of CwSN studying in Schools (State and UT wise)

| Total S.No.   | CWSNEnrolment -2021-22 States/Uts   |   Total Enrolment (Grade I to XII) |   CWSN Enrolment |    % |
|---------------|-------------------------------------|------------------------------------|------------------|------|
| 1.            | Andaman &Nicobar Islands            |                              66976 |              512 | 0.76 |
| 2.            | Andhra Pradesh                      |                            8167256 |            92243 | 1.13 |
| 3.            | Arunachal Pradesh                   |                             328306 |             2987 | 0.91 |
| 4.            | Assam                               |                            7101572 |            54213 | 0.76 |
| 5.            | Bihar                               |                           27046438 |           177727 | 0.66 |
| 6.            | Chandigarh                          |                             246568 |             3718 | 1.51 |
| 7.            | Chhattisgarh                        |                            5764230 |            77096 | 1.34 |
| 8.            | Dadra &Nagar Haveli &Daman &Diu     |                             128247 |             1173 | 0.91 |
| 9.            | Delhi                               |                            4318482 |            26266 | 0.61 |
| 10.           | Goa                                 |                             282426 |             3629 | 1.28 |
| 11.           | Gujarat                             |                           11377585 |            73366 | 0.64 |
| 12.           | Haryana                             |                            5792034 |            25454 | 0.44 |
| 13.           | Himachal Pradesh                    |                            1332148 |             6692 | 0.5  |
| 14.           | Jammu &Kashmir                      |                            2323395 |            17946 | 0.77 |
| 15.           | Jharkhand                           |                            7688207 |            51267 | 0.67 |
| 16.           | Karnataka                           |                           11827353 |            98183 | 0.83 |
| 17.           | Kerala                              |                            5854948 |           136884 | 2.34 |
| 18.           | Ladakh                              |                              49070 |              906 | 1.85 |
| 19.           | Lakshadweep                         |                              12004 |              204 | 1.7  |
| 20.           | Madhya Pradesh                      |                           15427286 |           138593 | 0.9  |
| 21.           | Maharashtra                         |                           22060834 |           257148 | 1.17 |
| 22.           | Manipur                             |                             631471 |             4571 | 0.72 |
| 23.           | Meghalaya                           |                             954938 |             4078 | 0.43 |
| 24.           | Mizoram                             |                             277337 |             3904 | 1.41 |
| 25.           | Nagaland                            |                             367175 |             3632 | 0.99 |
| 26.           | Odisha                              |                            7527517 |           146364 | 1.94 |
| 27.           | Puducherry                          |                             233028 |             2258 | 0.97 |
| 28.           | Punjab                              |                            5352046 |            64201 | 1.2  |
| 29.           | Rajasthan                           |                           17175003 |            80540 | 0.47 |
| 30.           | Sikkim                              |                             116329 |             1188 | 1.02 |
| 31.           | Tamilnadu                           |                           12167300 |           155552 | 1.28 |
| 32.           | Telangana                           |                            6763649 |            39737 | 0.59 |
| 33.           | Tripura                             |                             684179 |             3903 | 0.57 |
| 34.           | Uttar Pradesh                       |                           46774404 |           326593 | 0.7  |
| 35.           | Uttarakhand                         |                            2355768 |             4936 | 0.21 |
| 36.           | West Bengal                         |                           17165114 |           152692 | 0.89 |
|               | India Source: UDISE+ 2021-22        |                          255740623 |          2240356 | 0.88 |