Kerala: Aided special schools clueless on future status
There are close to 400 special schools in the state, including 60 buds schools.
KOZHIKODE: The LDF government is yet to take a decision on the aided status accorded to special schools by the previous UDF government. Last year, the UDF government had issued an order providing aided status to special schools having at least 50 students and buds schools having 25 children. There are close to 400 special schools in the state, including 60 buds schools. Except the buds schools, all institutions are run by private organisations.
According to the order, as many as 278 schools would become government aided schools. But then Opposition Leader V.S. Achuthanandan had slammed the decision alleging corruption in the teachers’ appointment. As per the LDF election manifesto, aided status would be conferred on the deserving ones. But the Differently Abled Persons’ Welfare Association (DAWF) is against the move and plans to approach the government.
“The move was sheer business to help private managements of the special schools to make huge profit,” says Mr K.V. Mathayi, DAWF Wayanad district treasurer. He says that the organisation stands for gradually bringing in the differently-abled students to general schools as it would help them stand on their own legs.
“Confining those students to special schools will do more harm than good. I have 65 per cent disability and I was able to come up through the interaction with the general society,” he says. Dr. M.K. Jayaraj, director of the C.H. Mohammad Koya Memorial State Institute for the Mentally Challenged (SIMC), Thiruvananthapuram, felt that unless we provide infrastructure for differently-abled children in the public education system it would be better to go for aided status.
“Our general schooling lacks a monitoring and evaluation system which is essential for such children. They need speech therapy, occupational therapy, and brail language system to survive. The students cannot be made to wait for long to have these amenities in the public education system,” he observed. The officials in the education department told DC that the government was yet to take a decision on the matter.