Bhubaneswar: Member of Parliament from Bhubaneswar Aparajita Sarangi raised the issue of special recognition for schools dealing with differently-abled children.
Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Sarangi said online teaching for the disabled children can only be a stop-gap arrangement. As per norms, such children should be integrated into schools. Giving figures she said 3% of this population goes to schools and they should be integrated with the schools, she said. In India, .5% to .6% children have been detected and sent to schools.
She requested the Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to throw some light on the measures taken.
In reply, Pradhan said India has started the new NEP, lot of emphasis has been given to this issue. During COVID digital education evolved but, how to educate the disabled children by integrating them with schools is a new challenge, said Pradhan.
The Minister said population of this category is around 10% and how to handle them is challenge for which we all have to work together, the Education Minister added.
He also urged the House to help him formulate ways to counter this. “Collectively we all have to face this challenge. Experts are working on how to create more such schools and trainers,” he said.
This came amid speculation in political circles that the two BJP leaders from Odisha do not enjoy the best of terms.
