A bench headed by Justices AM Khanwilkar and Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar observed that there is a shortage of rehabilitation professionals or special educators recognized and registered by the concerned council, who can alone impart education and training to persons with disabilities/CWSNs.
The bench said that as per the available data of Unified District Information for Education, there are 22.5 lakh CWSNs in the country. “Further, only 4.33 lakh general teachers have been trained to teach CWSN apart from teaching general children and only 28,535 special teachers are available for children with special needs,” the bench said in its 100-page judgment.
Giving a slew of directions in the matter, the bench directed the states to “initiate the appointment process to fill up the vacancies for the posts created for rehabilitation professionals/special teachers to be appointed on regular basis”. It further states, “It shall be completed within six months from the date of this order or before the commencement of the academic year 2022, 2023, whichever is earlier”.
The top court directed the Center to immediately notify norms and standards of student-teacher ratio for special schools and separate norms for special teachers who can impart education and training to CWSNs in general schools alone.
It said that till a comprehensive action plan in the form of a “stop-gap arrangement” is prepared, the recommendations made in 2019 by the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, National Capital Territory of Delhi will be adopted.
The apex court accepted the plea of the petitioners for adopting the recommendations of 2019 as a stop gap arrangement, which has suggested a student-teacher ratio of 8:1 for children with cerebral palsy; 5:1 for children with intellectual disabilities, ASD and specific learning disabilities; and 2:1 for the deaf blind and a combination of two or more of the seven disabilities.
“Compulsory training should be given to other teachers and staff in normal schools and sensitized to handle CWSNs, if recruited,” the bench said. It also directed officials to explore the possibility of merging unviable special schools with relatively viable special schools in the neighbourhood.
The bench said that the State Commissioners appointed under Section 79 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, asked to take suo motu cognizance of the compliance and then initiate an inquiry immediately to make recommendations to the appropriate authority. The bench said the state commissioners can submit a report regarding compliance by the end of February 2022.
The apex court’s decision came on petitions filed by Rajnish Kumar Pandey and others, advocating for teachers having B.Ed (Special) and D.Ed (Special) degree or diploma courses and fully trained teachers to meet the requirements of CWSN Was.
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