State, have mercy on them

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Special school teachers and their students will fast in front of secretariat today demanding that the government open its eyes and take immediate steps for the implementation of a decision it had taken one-and-a-half years ago.

The state secretariat will witness an agitation on Monday which will pose a question not only to the government but also to every Keralite who thinks his state is number one in the country: close to 3,500 special school teachers, along with over 70 special needs students who are above 18 years age along with their parents, will stage a fast there seeking festival allowance for Onam, which they would have got had the government implemented a decision it had taken one-and-a half years ago. It will be for the first time that the special needs children are hitting the streets in solidarity with their teachers and parents. Social activist Daya Bai will inaugurate the fast at 11 am.

And the government has only itself to blame. It is the delay on its part to implement an earlier decision to grant aided status to 33 special schools in the unaided sector. This has resulted in the teachers working there being denied festival allowance while the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers and Anganwadi teachers get it.

The UDF government had at the fag end of its tenure decided to give the schools a special status but the cabinet subcommittee of the LDF government, headed by SC/ST development minister A. K. Balan, is yet to implement the decision.

Father Roy Vadakkel, director of Asha Nilayam Special School for Mentally Challenged Children at Ponkunnam in Kottayam district which has been functioning since 1979 told DC that he along with office bearers of Association for Intellectually Disabled (AID), Special Olympics Bharat (SOB), Special School Employees Union (SSEU) Parivar and Association for the Welfare of Special School Staff (ASWAS) met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Education Minister Prof. C. Raveendranath several times to address their grievances. Their demands include free education to special needs children, minimum wages for the special school teachers, job reservation for those special needs children who are above 18 years and also to provide lifelong care for them after their parents’ death, special legislation against atrocities against them, stringent action against erring officials who deny them their grants and pension and to allocate them in the priority list of ration card.

“Unfortunately, the government is saying that special rules have to be initiated to grant aided status to 33 unaided special schools,” Fr Vadakkel said. “It is interesting to note that neither the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) schools nor the State Institute for the Mentally Challenged (SIMC) at Pangappara in Thiruvananthapuram come under special rules category. So how can the government claim that unaided schools should be brought under the special rules now?”

Statistics reveal that there are between six lakh to eight lakh special needs children in the state where there is only one special school directly run by the government-- SIMC at Pangappara. This is where private unaided special schools have sprung up across the state. Sadly, the special school teachers who have graduation, post-graduation, B.Ed and special training in special education get paltry salary. Jalaja*, a special education teacher working in the capital city who has got 29 years experience, is getting only Rs 10,000 as monthly salary.

“We are denied even minimum wages,” a dejected Ms Jalaja told DC. “While the special needs students are getting scholarships and grants from local self bodies, their teachers are denied their basic rights. We are working for the voiceless students and unfortunately we too have become voiceless.”

Her grievance is not an isolated issue. Another special education teacher based in the neighbouring Kollam district told DC that she gets a paltry '9,000 per month for her service which has lasted 35 years. “If I fall sick and stay back home, the school management will immediately deduct a day’s salary,” said a special education teacher who wished to remain anonymous. “Several Onam and Christmas seasons have passed by. Honestly, I have celebrated no festival as I can’t afford it.”

Education minister in the UDF ministry P.K. Abdu Rabb blamed the LDF government for coming out with lame excuses to delay the procedure to grant aided category to 33 unaided schools. He told DC that inordinate delay will occur if the government insisted for bringing in special rules.

“The government is coming out with a lame argument for the sake of arguing,” Mr Rabb told DC. “They can definitely take a humanitarian stand for the special needs students and their teachers’ plight as they are the ones who should be given maximum consideration.”

Then chief minister Oommen Chandy had taken a compassionate stand towards the special schools having 100 students or even less. By then the model code of conduct had come in to effect causing a severe let down to the special needs children and their teachers and management alike.

Currently, there are more than 67 BUD schools where children with special needs are undertaken by Kudumbashree. Fr Vadakkel claimed that only very few BUD schools are working efficiently as majority of them lack qualified staff and adequate infrastructure. The government has announced that they will start another 200 more BUD schools in the state. “The government should reconsider their stand on starting more BUD schools as there are existing special schools functioning across the state,” Fr Vadakkel said. “They should take steps to provide accreditation and grade the existing special schools and evolve them in to a resource centre for special needs children.” He also feels that there is conflict of interest as special schools come under education department and the BUD schools are attached to the social justice department.

Repeated efforts to get in touch with education minister and his office staff who takes care of the school matters and SC/ST development minister remained futile. The flip side of this issue is that majority of the special needs schools have children suffering from autism, cerebral palsy, multi-disability and mental retardation following the same curriculum. For the first time in the country, State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT Kerala) had come out with a unified curriculum scheme for special schools in the state since June this year. Special school teachers vouch that though it has opened new vistas to them, it requires more quality time to give their wards with different types of therapies, with the end result being less pay.