Question : Teachers Training for Disabled Students

(a) whether the Government aims to introduce a mechanism for training teachers specially for students with disabilities and if so, the details thereof;
(b) the details of alternative homeschooling mechanisms that are accessible to a student with disabilities; and
(c) considering that according to the 8th All India School Education Survey (AISES) out of 58,76,273 teachers, only 80,942 (1.32%) teachers have received training in inclusive education, whether the Government has any plans of providing training programmes to teachers which specifically focuses on inclusive education and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF EDUCATION

(SHRI RAMESH POKHRIYAL ‘NISHANK’)

(a) There is a proper dedicated mechanism to provide teachers training under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme Samagra Shiksha. This teacher education programme is recurrent at block/cluster levels with the support of SCERT, SRGs, KRPs, etc. and integrated with the on-going in-service teacher education/training schedules in DIETs and other Institutions. Teacher education modules at NCERT, SCERT, DIET and BRC level includes suitable components on education of children with special needs.
Further, the Department has launched National Initiative for School Heads'' and Teachers'' Holistic Advancement (NISHTHA). It aims to build competencies among all the teachers and school principals at the elementary stage. The concerns of Children with Special Needs (CWSN) are also addressed along with other to integrate their concerns within education system.
(b) Under the scheme, the intervention for home based education is provided to those children who have severe intellectual and physical disabilities and who cannot access neighbourhood school owing to their condition. The child is recommended home schooling after a comprehensive assessment by a team of doctors and specialists. Under Samagra Shiksha, during the year 2020-21, an outlay of Rs 2588.06 lakh covering 1,12,748 CwSN has been approved for home based education in all States and Union Territories.
(c) In order to provide qualitative education to differently-abled students, 424285 general teachers have been provided training for addressing the needs of differently-abled students. Apart from the above, 28285 dedicated special educators have been recruited by all the states and UTs who work on itinerant mode for addressing the scholastic and co-scholastic needs of differently abled students in government and government aided schools in the year 2018-19. The details of general teachers who have been given training on curriculum adaptation including learning disabilities under Samagra Shiksha are given at annexure-I.
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