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 said on Thursday.
“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 Srinagar.
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.
Instructions have been conveyed to school education department and higher education department from time to time to make all the public buildings including schools, colleges and universities disabled-friendly so that the specially- abled, he said.
PTI