AGARTALA, Aug 21 � As part of access to education for all children aged 6-14 years, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan State Mission has identified 397 children from nine blocks of the State as Persons with Special Needs.
According to a survey, altogether 1,34,006 have been brought under the ambit of access to formal education since the adoption of SSA and 594 children were left out due to their ailing health condition.
But the Inclusive Education, a component of the national flagship programme � SSA appears handy to bring them to the social education. The number of children with special needs has been reduced from 594 to 397 after taking up the ambitious programme last year. All the left out children will be brought into the programme to provide them prescribed education � social, moral and health and hygiene.
Giving light on the programme, Ajit Kumar Das, Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) on Tuesday said that about 70 volunteers had been engaged to educate the children with special needs and ten posts for volunteers are still lying vacant. Each volunteer gets Rs 7500 honorarium on monthly basis.
�The trained volunteer goes to respective house of the selected children with special needs under the Persons with Disability Act-1996 since they are not able to attend formal school �, he said.
He said the main obstacle of the programme is dearth of trained teachers in the State. �As per the guideline, a degree from Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) recognised institute is a must for getting the volunteer job under the Inconclusive Education. But there is dearth of such educated youth prompting us to undertake RCI approved training for aspirants�, he said.
Das further said, the SSA State Mission is working with an NGO � Abhoy Mission � to equip the aspiring volunteers on curriculum on persons with special needs, popularly known as persons with disability.
Sharing his experience on the inclusive education, Das said almost all the uncovered children with special needs reside in scattered far-flung hamlets under Dasdsa, Dumbur Nagar, Chawmanu, Rupaicherra, Korbok blocks. �It is tough to cover them with the pragramme. So we are pursuing home based education by engaging volunteers to provide them basic education�, he added.
