Education of children with disabilities
The Department of School Education & Literacy supports inclusive education of children with disabilities. Under the Centrally sponsored scheme of Samagra Shiksha, various provisions for educational needs of children with disabilities have been made including, barrier free infrastructure through ramps with handrails and disabled friendly toilets in schools.
As per UDISE+ 2018-19 (prov.), there are 8,33,703ramps with handrails and 1,49,501 disabled friendly toilets for children with disabilities in government and government aided schools for classes I to XII.
The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020advocates full equity and inclusion as the cornerstone of education to ensure that all students are able to thrive in the education system. It also underscores within its framework, education of children with disabilities in order to ensure equitable quality schooling.
The policy specifies recommendations for quality home based education for children with severe or multiple disabilities through the support of resource centres and special educators. The NEP further specifies that,children under home-based education must betreated as equal to any other child in the general system.After the approval and announcement of NEP 2020, the States and UTs have been asked to prepare implementation plan based on the recommendations of the policy, including recommendations and provisions for access to school education for children with severe & multiple disabilities, in line with the RPwD Act, 2016.
This information was given by the Union Minister for Education Ministry, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ in a written reply in the RajyaSabha today.