Lok Sabha Question No. 1802 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-07-31
Subject: Enrollment of Disabled Students
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Karti P. Chidambaram

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1802

ANSWERED ON 31.07.2023

## Enrollment of Disabled Students

## 1802 SHRI KARTI P.CHIDAMBARAM:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the percentage of disabled children that are currently enrolled in Educational Institutions;
- (b) the ratio of special educators to disabled students in all Educational Institutions;
- (c)  whether  the  Government  has  incorporated  assistive  technology  for  disabled  children  in Educational Institutions, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor; and
- (d)  the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  in  making  Educational  Institutions  more  accessible  for disabled students?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) The percentage of enrollment of Children with Special Needs (CwSN) in schools is 0.85% of total enrollment of students, as per UDISE+ 2021-22.
- (b) Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and majority of the schools are under the  domain  of  respective  State  and  UT  Government.  State  and  UT  Governments  are  the appropriate Governments under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act,  2009.  The  schedule  to  The  Right  of  Children  to  Free  and  Compulsory Education Act  or Right  to  Education  Act  (RTE),  2009  with  respect  to  Pupil  Teacher  Ratio  (PTR)  for  special teachers  in  general  schools  has  been  amended  through  Notification  No.  S.O.  4586  (E)  dated 21.09.2022  (published  on  29.09.2022).  The  PTR  for  primary  level  and  Upper  Primary  level are10:1 and 15:1 respectively.
- (c)& (d) The Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education has launched an overarching programme for the school education sector viz; Samagra Shiksha Scheme.  There is a dedicated Inclusive Education component for the education of Children with Special Needs (CwSN) as an integral part of Samagra Shiksha. The scheme covers all children with disabilities as  mentioned in the schedule of disabilities of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016.

Through  this  component,  CwSN  are  provided  support  via  specific  student  oriented interventions  such  as  identification  and  assessment  camps,  provision  of  aids,  appliances  and assistive  devices,  transportation,  scribe  and  escort  allowance  support,  Braille  books  and  large print  books  for  children  with  visual  impairment,  stipend  for  girls  with  special  needs  and teaching-learning  materials  etc.  in  order  to  appropriately  address  their  unique  educational requirements in general schools. Capacity building of general teachers and special educators on meeting  learning  needs  to  provide  quality  education  to  children  with  disabilities  and  improve their  learning  outcomes,  are  also  covered.   Further,  individualized  support  is  also  provided through  therapeutic  interventions  at  the  block  level.    For  the  year2023-24,  an  amount  of ₹1,112.40 lakh has been approved for aids & appliances for CwSN and ₹3,790.89 lakh has been approved for assistive devices, equipments& TLMs respectively.

Samagra  Shiksha  also  provides  assistance  for  Disabled  friendly  Toilets,  Ramps  and Ramps with Handrails for ensuring barrier free access to schools.

Further,  the  National  Council  of  Educational  Research  and  Training  (NCERT)  has proactively taken many initiatives to promote the accessibility of education such as:

(i) PRASHAST -  A  Disability  Screening  Checklist  for  Schools  -  PRASHAST  -  A  Disability Screening Checklist for Schools' booklet and mobile app covers the 21 disabilities, including the benchmark  disabilities  as  per  the  RPwD  Act  2016.  This  initiative  facilitates  early  screening, leading to certification of Children with disabilities, as per the provisions of Samagra Shiksha.

(ii) Barkhaa : UDL based Reading Series for 'All' - 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.

(iii) Teaching  Learning  Resources  in  Indian  Sign  Language -  This  initiative  realizes  and promotes  inclusion  of  students  with  HI  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.

(iv) 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.

(v) Priya -The  Accessibility  Warrior  -  The  comic  book  named  'Priya  -The  Accessibility Warrior' provides glimpses into the world of a girl named Priya who met an accident and her leg was  plastered.  This  book  brings  the  message  of  accessibility  and  helps  in  spreading  the actionable points for enhancing accessibility. The comic book is available on DIKSHA Portal, EPathshala, and NCERT website for everyone to access and read the comic book with embedded ISL video and audio in flipbook, pdf and ePub.

(vi) PMeVIDYA -  Under PM eVidya, 12 DTH channels (one class, one channel) initiative by the  Ministry  of  Education,  Government  of  India,  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  (30 Minutes)  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.

*****