Meagre pay, a major reason for shortage of volunteers

October 24, 2014 10:29 pm | Updated May 23, 2016 04:50 pm IST - Hassan

In Hassan district too, the Education Department is finding it difficult to provide homeschooling for children with special needs owing to non-availability of volunteers.

The meagre amount paid to volunteers is considered to be one of the major reasons for the shortage.

The department has identified 296 children with special needs in the age group of 6 to 14.

Nine categories

Children with disabilities identified in nine categories — visually impaired, hearing impaired, speech impaired, orthopaedic impaired, multiple disability, mentally retarded, learning disability, cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorder — are included in this list.

Under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, these children are provided homeschooling by involving interested volunteers who undergo special training.

Ideally, one volunteer is required for one child. But the district has just 88 volunteers.

“Volunteers get an honorarium of Rs. 1,000 a month to teach the children with special needs,” said Phanish, District Deputy Project Coordinator of SSA.

The volunteers are given authorised identity cards signed by the respective Deputy Director of Public Instruction.

They have to spend two to three hours for three days a week.

“The objective is to help such children pick up skills to manage physical activities (in case of physical disability) independently and teach them basics of different subjects that are taught to normal students in classrooms,” he said.

In order to manage with the volunteers available, the department has allotted more than one child to each person.

“We can allot a maximum of three children to a volunteer. In case of three children, the volunteer gets Rs. 3,000 a month,” the officer said.

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