According to a bench led by Justice A M Khanwilkar, there are now just 1,20,781 special educators registered with the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI). In a series of petitions filed at the Supreme Court, as reported by SCC Online Blog, the petitioners claimed that there is a need to appoint 73,888 special teachers to teach 3,69,443 Children/Child with Special Needs (CwSN), also known as Divyang in the state of Uttar Pradesh and an equally large number required in the state of Punjab to fulfill the teacher-student ratio of 5:1. The bench was hearing a writ petition alleging that authorities were breaking the law by engaging such teachers on a contract basis at recognized institutions with no guarantee of tenure.
These special teachers should have studied B.Ed (special) and D.Ed (special) degree/diploma courses and fully trained to cater to the needs of CwSN. The Supreme Court mentioned that presently, there is a dearth of special teachers who can specifically cater to the requirements of CwSN.
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Section 13 of the Rehabilitation Council of India Act, 1992, states that a rehabilitation professional who possesses prescribed qualifications and is so recognized by and enrolled on the Council’s Register alone is permitted to practice as a rehabilitation professional anywhere in India, including as a special teacher. India Today reports that currently there are 22.5 lakh CwSN in India and not enough special teachers for them which leads to their under-development and dropping out.
The Apex Court accordingly ordered that the Centre should notify the norms and standards of pupil-teacher ratio and the norms for special teachers in the general schools. Until then, an interim arrangement should be made. It also directed the schools to make permanent posts and initiate appointment processes to fill the vacancies and other such directions to overcome the shortage of special teachers.
