STATE TIMES NEWS
SRINAGAR: Over 24,000 children with special needs have been enrolled in government-run schools and instructions have been issued to make all the existing schools disabled-friendly, the state government today said. “As many as 30,237 CWSN (children with special needs) have been identified during 2015-16 and out of them, 24,363 have been enrolled in government schools,” Social Welfare Minister Sajjad Ghani Lone said in a written reply in the state Assembly here.
Responding to a question by PDP member Anjum Fazili, the minister said 59 girls under CWSN have also been enrolled in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidalaya (KGBV).
Besides this regular schooling, home-based educaton is being provided to CWSN by resource teachers engaged under Sarva Shikasha Abhiyan, the minister said.
He said there are 18 schools for specially-abled children functioning in the state run by various non-government organisations. In addition, the government has established one residential school for blind at Roop Nagar in Jammu with an intake capacity of 25 inmates. A composite regional centre has been established at Srinagar by Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for special education of persons with disabilities, he said.The Centre agreed to release these salary arrears but there was still a shortfall in release of central share 2015-16 amount to Rs 3.84 crore under teacher salary despite the state having provided full matching state share, he said.
Under RMSA, the delay in disbursement of salary is due to non-receipt of recurring grant from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, he said, adding the salary has been cleared up to April 2016 under RMSA.
A total of 144 high and higher secondary schools across the state were selected under the scheme, he said, adding while 73 such schools were selected from Kashmir region, 67 were selected from Jammu region. Four such schools were selected from Ladakh region, the minister said. He said the highest number of 16 schools were selected from Jammu district, followed by 12 each from Anantnag and Baramulla and 10 from Kupwara.
