In a first-of-its-kind drive, the schools in Rajasthan will be made specially abled-friendly on the basis of 75 parameters, including the availability of ramps, seating arrangements and emergency evacuation. The work has been launched as part of the campaign, from three schools in Udaipur district.
A joint team of the State Government’s Department of Social Justice & Empowerment and Department of Child Empowerment, is monitoring the progress of the drive, and inspecting the schools for their capacity enhancement. The departments have issued instructions to the school managements to take full care of specially abled children.
State Commissioner for specially abled persons Uma Shankar Sharma said here on Saturday that all the government and private schools would be checked for ensuring compliance with the rules and regulations for the protection of rights of specially abled students. The schools would also be required to extend the benefits of all special schemes to the children, he said.
While checking the compliance with the parameters, attention would be paid to find out how friendly the school buildings and arrangements were for the children. Mr. Sharma said the regular inspections would ensure that all necessary facilities were provided to the specially abled students in the schools.
The parameters cover the arrangements on the school premises, classrooms, toilets, cafeteria, entrance gate, lift and the drinking water facility. The inspecting teams would also check if the schools were complying with the provisions of the Right to Education Act, 2009, for admission of children with special abilities.
Mr. Sharma said the Panchayat Elementary Education Officers (PEEOs) in all the districts had been authorised to take action against the schools not following the rules for making their buildings and facilities specially abled-friendly, thereby, not taking care of the rights of such students.
