Govt schools ignoring children with special needs, says study

More than 65% of state-run secondary education schools in the city do not have toilets for children with special needs, a survey by a national body has shown.

The survey carried out by National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) reports that of 155 state secondary education schools, 103 do not cater to the toilet needs of children needing special attention.

This acts as a hindrance to such children attending schools on a regular basis and runs foul of guidelines in this regard, which state that toilets are mandatory for such children and they must be fitted with commode and grab-rails.

The NUEPA reports also adds that only 70 secondary schools in the city have appointed full-time librarians and the rest 85 schools do not have librarians, in spite of the facility of libraries being available in 154 schools.

This (the absence of librarians) puts the children through a longish process to get books issued for reading, the study notes.

The study also documents that 60 schools in Chandigarh do not have a Physics labs with 62 schools doing without Chemistry and Biology labs and 43 schools are without Computer labs.

There is no maths lab in 75 schools with 116 schools not making any arrangement for language labs, 125 schools do not have Geography labs, 112 schools do not have Home Science laboratories and 142 schools do not have the facility of Psychology labs.

There are no internet labs in 91 schools, due to which a large number of students do not have access to this technology.

The report also points out flaws in management structure with 71 city schools not having have School Management and Development Committee, according to the report. There is no parent-teacher association in 113 schools, the report also adds.

On the qualification of teachers, the report states that 58 teachers in the schools are below graduate, 440 teachers are graduates, 2,492 teachers are post-graduates, 327 teachers have done MPhil/ PhD, and six teachers have post-doctoral degrees.

About NUEPA

The National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), established by the ministry of human resource development, is a premier organisation dealing with capacity building and research in planning and management of education not only in India but also in South Asia.