News

Volume 6 Issue 8 - October 01, 2009

Delhi High Court directs Delhi government to appoint special educators

D.N.I.S. News Network, India: A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Manmohan has directed the Delhi government to appoint special educators in the 3,000 schools run by it and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (M.C.D.) and New Delhi Municipal Council (N.D.M.C.) within the next 6 months.

The Bench was hearing a P.I.L. filed by an N.G.O. complaining about the lack of efforts by the government to bring disabled children to mainstream education. The judges said that by denying disabled children proper facilities the government was denying them the right to education.

Ashok Aggarwal, counsel for the N.G.O. said, “Schools are turning away children with disabilities. Principals tell parents that the schools do not have facilities for disabled children.”

Coming down heavily on the government, the court said that no school can refuse admission on grounds of disability. The court also said that the teachers should be specially trained and should preferably be a Bachelors in Special Education. The government has also been instructed to provide them with all adequate equipments.

According to Aggarwal, out of two lakh disabled children, only 15,000 are in private schools. "The future of the remaining children hangs in balance with no facility being provided to them," he said.

The government appointed committee's report on mapping disabled students across the city also came under severe criticism for not following proper methods.

"Mapping requires an extensive campaign having 200-300 people to get accurate statistics,'' the bench observed while directing the government to conduct door-to-door campaign to list disabled students.