The decision of the Cabinet on Wednesday to retain 1,286 IED resource teachers under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in the State will come as a huge relief to them.
This year, the Union government had slashed the number of resource teachers under the SSA (from classes 1 to 8) to 795, and reduced the fund allocation accordingly.
The Cabinet decided to sanction an amount of Rs.5 crore so that the 491 teachers who had lost their jobs could be reinstated.
Unlike the IED SS resource teachers, those under the SSA are attached to block resource centres. There are 168 education blocks in the State, and these function under Assistant Education Officers. A resource teacher may have 8 to 10 schools under him/her.
“Resource teachers are posted depending on the number of schools in each block and the need,” says IED Project Officer Mani Joseph.
Funds for the project are sanctioned on the basis of number of special children in the State as mentioned in the Census 2011. The maximum amount allowed to a child with special needs is Rs.3,000 a year, Mr. Joseph says.
