The Supreme Court had in October 2021 directed all the state governments to fill up the vacancy of special teachers in schools for children of special needs within six months. However, the Odisha government is allegedly yet to make such appointments to help divyang students.
Due to the unavailability of special teachers and left with no other option being left for them, the divyang students are taking classes along with other children. In the process, they are reportedly facing a lot of issues during the teaching imparting process in both state-run and private schools.
In 64000 schools across the State, there are around 82000 divyang students. However, there is an acute shortage of special teachers for them.
“We need special educators to improve our study skills. And, we will be able to study like other normal students,” said a divyang student, Padmini Tudu.
Another student, Smrutirekha Pradhan said special educators will help divyang students like her study well and be a part of the mainstream.
Psychologist Swagatika Samantray said those (teachers) teaching divyang students should be able to understand the problems being faced by them. “Trained should is required to teach students of all categories,” she said.
States like Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Delhi, Rajasthan and Tripura have already acted as per the direction of the Supreme Court but some states including Odisha are yet to work in this direction.
Now, the Apex Court has asked to submit details of the steps taken towards the appointment of special educators and scheduled the next hearing for August 17, 2022.
On the other hand, what is more surprising is that around 4000 aspirants who have taken special training to teach such children are unemployed in the State.
"The SC had ordered to appoint special teachers but the Odisha government is yet to implement it... And, even after making several rounds of the different departments of the State government, there has been no headway in this regard," said Odisha Special Educator Association chief, Debashis Pati.
Meanwhile, the State School & Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash said, “We are reviewing the Supreme Court’s order. And, the department will soon take an appropriate decision.”
What rules for special educator appointment say?
- As per the norms, primary and upper primary schools need to ensure a student-special teacher ratio of 10:1.
-The State mass education department will ensure the teaching and learning process and availability of materials.
- Private schools will not get ‘certificate of recognition’ if they don’t have special educators.