The Lok Sabha on Monday took up for discussion the issue of special recognition for schools dealing with differently-abled children.
Raising the issue, BJP Member from Bhubaneswar Aparajita Sarangi asked whether the education ministry, in association with Rehabilitation Council of India, is mulling a strategy by which a large number of institutes may be given recognition to encourage more special educators to come up.
Lauding the question, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged the House to help him formulate ways to counter this. “According to me, the population of this category of different kind of disability is around 10 per cent. Handling this is a challenge. We all have to work together”, said Pradhan.
“Collectively we all have to face this challenge. Experts are working on how to create more such schools and trainers,” he said.
Congress MP Tarun Gogoi suggested that the government consider ensuring representations from students with disabilities for facilitating policies under the National Education Policy. He said that this would ensure better understanding of the problems and thereby, lead to better policies.
To this, Dharamendra Pradhan replied that the house is witnessing a healthy discussion and has seen consensus on related issues. He assured the government is working on the same and that all suggestions by the MP would be noted.
On whether the ministry has made any specific efforts to develop the sign language in the country and application of education technology for this particular section by Kerala MP E. T Mohammed Basheer, the Minister said that both advises are good and government is working on both.