3 special educators for 315 children in over 200 schools

As per 2009 high court order, it is mandatory for all schools in Delhi to have at least one special educator. But, Gurgaon schools have just an abysmal ratio of just 3 special teachers for 315 children in over 200 schools.

The Right to Education Act ensures that every child with special needs, irrespective of the kind, category and degree of disability, is provided meaningful and quality education. It mandates that special needs children be given precedence and be brought into the mainstream.

These special educators train teachers, who in turn teach students with special needs. With more than 200 government schools in Gurgaon, inevitably, few special needs students are supervised by trained educators, who are not deployed at any school, but visit them periodically.

Gurgaon's only special needs school, catering to 265 hearing impaired students, however, does not have a single teacher who understands sign language. On top of this, the principal admits one school is inadequate to meet the needs of the district.

Schools in Gurgaon lack basic infrastructure - ramps or lifts for orthopedically-impaired children, books printed in Braille for visually-impaired students and interpreters for hearing-impaired students, which compels parents of special needs children to send them to resource centres, set up as coordination points to support schools with special children.

The district administration claimed that there are only six sanctioned special educator posts for Gurgaon (for over 300 kids) and 24 for the district (for 1,060 students). "The policies are made by the state government. We can't do much about it," said Gyan Vati, DPC, Gurgaon.