Justice Sudhir Mittal also made it clear that special children had a fundamental right to elementary education and the right to grow up in society up to their optimum potential. The assertions came in a case where a “special child” could not attend the school for the past three years after his mother remained unsuccessful in obtaining a school-leaving certificate.
The court observes
1. State duty-bound to ensure that special children’s education is not prematurely interrupted
2. Adequate facilities to be provided to these children and schools
3. State required to provide counselling facility for the parents also
4. School must ensure professional guidance is made available
Justice Mittal not only directed taking back the child in the school, but also ordered that he would not be charged for education till he remained in the institution. School-leaving certificate would be provided on demand in case the mother wanted to move him to another institution.
Justice Mittal observed the child was an excellent sportsman and participated in roller skating and swimming during the Special Olympics and won medals at the state and national-level competitions for special children. Everything was fine till May 2019 before the special educator left the school and the principal also changed.
Justice Mittal asserted many special children were earlier unable to reach their optimum potential following a lack of understanding and consequent identification of the problem. But the issue stood recognized and there was no dearth of legislation on the subject. Statutory rights were provided for assimilation of special children in society. Yet, the executive authorities tasked with implementation of these rights were unable to provide succor following a lack of sensitization. As a result, children and their parents continued to face an uphill task of getting benefit of inclusivity.
Justice Mittal added every “child” had the fundamental right to elementary education. The state was duty bound to ensure that special children’s education was not prematurely interrupted and adequate facilities were provided to them and the schools in accordance with the statutory provisions.
Justice Mittal further added elementary education for special children would mean education commensurate with their physical and mental capabilities and would include the concept of “inclusive education” as defined in the Disabilities Act.
The state was required to provide counselling facilities for the parents also for enabling them to adjust to the limitation of their children and accept their development commensurate with the disabilities. “If difficulties are experienced by the child or by other children due to interaction between them, the school must ensure that professional guidance is made available for their solution. A school cannot lay the blame on the child or the parent and absolve itself of its responsibilities because it has been set up for the purposes of imparting education and it is its duty to impart such education even in the face of problems,” Justice Mittal asserted.
AURANGABAD:
The Right to Education (RTE) Act, introduced in 2012, allows children with disabilities to be integrated in mainstream education. Inclusive education addresses the needs of disabled children, however, it’s only a handful of schools that practice it.
“Despite the RTE Act, many of the disabled children go to special schools, away from their peers at regular schools. All students, irrespective of their impairment, should be educated in mainstream schools,” said Aditi Shard, project head of Vi hang, a multidisciplinary group in Omkar Balwadi, which assists children with disabilities in their education.
Nitin Upscale, Aurangabad villa parish ad education officer (primary) pointed out that Aurangabad district has 8,670 children with special needs in the age group of 0-18, of which, 7,568 students are getting education in regular schools, private and government. “Of the 7,568 students, 14 are children with autism,” he said.
“The RTE Act says that a child with disability, as defined by the Persons with Disability Act 1995 and the National Trust Act, has the right to free and compulsory education as per the provisions of Ch V of the PWD Act,” he added.
Children with visual impairment, low vision, hearing impairment, leprosy-cured, loco motor disability, mental retardation, mental illness, autism, cerebral palsy and multiple disability have the right to study in a regular school environment till the age of 18, he explained.
“The objective of the Act is to integrate disabled children in the community as equal partners,” said Upasane.
Not many are aware of the provisions for special children, pointed out social activist Sunita Tagore. “It is not only important to provide infrastructure like ramps, toilets, accessibility to laboratories, playground, etc. but also to identify and support children with learning and mental disabilities,” she added.
“There are many initiatives for educating a child with special needs in Aurangabad but more stress is given to vocational training and special schools. Inclusive education remains a distant dream,” said Shard.
“Financial, structural and attitudinal barriers make the implementation of inclusive education difficult,” said M V Joshi of Navjeevan School for special children.
“Lack of flexibility in curriculum, affordability, being bullied in class and not getting adequate attention from the teachers who are not trained to teach disabled children are some contributing factors. Inclusive education is bound to fail if the teachers or principals are not qualified and if children with disabilities are treated as passive participants in a classroom,” said Pushpa Pan at, principal of a Marathi medium school.
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