‘Karnataka’s 21.6% differently-abled children lack access to education’

BENGALURU:  United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) State of Education Report for India-2019 –Children with Disabilities was released in Bengaluru on Wednesday, December 11, 2019. According to the report, 3.30 lakh children between the age 5 and 19 suffer from one or the other form of disability. Out of these, 21.6 per cent children have never received education while 15.5 per cent previously went to school but later dropped out.

“The illiteracy rate among children with disabilities remains at 60 per cent, which is an alarming 16 per cent higher than the state average of all illiterate children (as per the 2011 Census),” said Eric Falt, Director, UNESCO,New Delhi.

Suresh Kumar, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, while speaking at the launch said that the state’s policy for education of children with special needs will be fully implemented and efforts will be made to reach out to those who were left out.

The State of Education Report was prepared by UNESCO in coordination with government departments, CBM India Trust, Seva In Action and several other NGOs. The N for Nose report also enlists 10 recommendations to the Government of India to be implemented for making education more inclusive for special children. Citing data from the Ministry of Human Resources Development, the report said, “In Karnataka, data from 52 schools had discrepancies regarding disabled-friendly toilets, 58 schools regarding functional disabled-friendly toilets, 83 schools regarding need for ramps, 68 regarding ramp availability, 88 regarding handrail availability.”

The report also pointed out that the schools in the state face a shortage of funds from the Centre. The number of School Readiness ProgrammeCentres (SRPCs), which were started in 2012-13 in Karnataka, also dropped along with the number of human resources for these centres. The SRPCs were started to train children with intellectual impairment for successful inclusion in mainstream schools, especially in areas where home-based education was high. The programme included volunteers, special educators and physiotherapists.

“Due to shortage of central funds, the number of volunteers for home-based education dropped. The number of SRPCs too dropped to one per block. Now, they function twice a week with four block-inclusive education resource teachers per block. This is highly inadequate,” the report says.

Under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, District Disability Rehabilitation Centres (DDRCs) were to be set up in all districts. These offer early intervention, therapeutic services, counselling and support for children with disabilities. “There are eight DDRCs in Karnataka at Ballari, Belgaum, Mandya, Tumakur, Kalaburagi, Mandya, Bidar and Kolar,” the report stated, calling it a financial non-starter due to lack of allocation of funds.

The report also stated that Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra have gender gaps at both secondary and higher secondary levels.