The Hindu 01.02.2010
‘Special educators’ for MCD schools
Staff Reporter
Rs.2 crore allocated in MCD budget
Other details yet to be finalised
NEW DELHI: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi proposes to recruit “special teachers” for its schools exclusively for training children with special needs. The decision has been taken following a Delhi High Court’s direction in this regard last year.
To provide for special staff required for these classes, the civic body has also allocated a sum of Rs.2 crore in its annual budget allocation for the current fiscal.
According to MCD Education Committee chairperson Prithviraj Sahni, the civic body is yet to decide on details of the plan such as recruitment rules for teachers, the facilities and studying material to be introduced.
“According to the preliminary plans, there will be a total of 1,746 such classes and each class will have one ‘special educator’ supported by other staff. We are yet to prepare and approve details like when will the recruitment process of staff begin and how many new students will be enrolled for the classes, however, we plan to implement the scheme soon,” he added.
The budget allocation for the special classes has already been approved by the MCD Standing Committee. MCD spokesperson Deep Mathur said: “Though this proposal has been given the approval in principle in the Standing Committee it would now be tabled before the MCD House. Modalities of how to implement the proposal are still being worked out and decided.”
According to its own estimates, the MCD has around 2,087 disabled children in its schools. It, however, does not have any special educators in its schools yet. It also does not have a set of recruitment rules for the employment of such staff.
