‘Bring special schools under Education Department’

While asking the State government to bring special schools under the ambit of the Education Department, the Karnataka State Association for Special Educators and Supportive Staff on Saturday sought revision in the honorarium paid to special educators.

The association said this in separate memorandums given to Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar when he visited the Saanidhya Residential Special School for Differently Abled in Shaktinagar.

Vasanth Kumar Shetty, the general secretary of the association, said there were 400 special schools in the state and they were presently coming under the Department for Empowerment of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens. The special educators working in these schools were receiving monthly honorarium of ₹13,500, which was fixed in 2014.

Mr. Shetty said for bring qualitative change in special education, special schools should be brought under the ambit of the Education Department. The honorarium of the special educators was too little to meet their needs and it should be revised, Mr. Shetty told the Minister.