Kerala: No mercy for special schools

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The LDF government is apathetic towards the welfare of special school students and teachers, according to the organisations working for them. A proposal to grant aided category status to 33    special needs schools,  which was pending with  the education department,   has  been referred to the social justice department. The special school organisations have put on hold their plan to launch an indefinite strike across the state following the requests from Health and Social Justice Minister K. K. Shylaja and social justice secretary Biju Prabhakar.

During the last two years, the State Association for Co-ordinating Rehabilitation and Empowerment of Developmentally Disabled (SACRED) and Association for Intellectually Disabled (AID) have been holding protests in front of the secretariat and across the state demanding aided category to 33 special schools out of a total of 284.    The LDF government held several rounds of talks with the organisation representatives. But association representatives told DC that so far the promises have remained on paper.

"Initially, our request to grant aided category to special schools was pending before the education minister. We were caught off guard when the chief minister's office referred it to the social justice department.   The much-hyped Bud schools are functioning under the ministry of local self-government," said a special school representative. Currently, there are 67 Bud schools under Kudumbasree. The special school organisations allege that they are not qualified or trained to care for special needs students.

There were efforts by the government to launch more Bud schools. But when the local self-government department realised that it was not easy to launch more schools, the move was shelved. The organisations   fear that the government is apathetic to their    demands. "Another round of talks has been scheduled with the social justice department officials on Saturday evening. If the government prolongs a decision,   we will launch an indefinite strike," warned a representative.

However, a government source told DC that the social justice department will not grant aided status to special schools. "Schemes worth Rs 70 crore would soon be sanctioned for special needs schools. The social justice department has decided to categorise A, B and C grading systems where special needs students and schools would be graded as per their status," said the source. Ms  Shylaja's office confirmed that a final decision on granting aided status to the schools was  pending with the government.