OREANDA-NEWS. Under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), States and UT’s are assisted to enrol children with special needs (CWSN) in schools, through early identification, assessment camps, distribution of aids & appliances, appropriate teaching learning equipments, training of teachers in inclusive strategies, barrier free school infrastructure as well as home based learning methods. As per Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) 2013-14, 25.03 lakh CWSN are enrolled in schools which included 10.71 lakh girls with special needs. 2.06 lakh CWSN including 91318 girls with severe profound disabilities are being covered under home based education. Besides, 6887 girls with special needs are covered through Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas in educationally backward blocks.

At the secondary level, CWSN are provided assistance under the Inclusive Education for Disabled at Secondary Stage (IEDSS) component of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA). Girls with disabilities, in addition to availing facilities under other scheme components for girls’ education, are given an additional stipend @200 per month per girl child at the secondary level. The Government has also introduced the Saksham Scholarship Scheme to provide encouragement and support to 1000 differently abled students to persue technical education in a year.

All schemes for school education development include training modules for gender sensitization and inclusive education as part of the annual refresher training of inservice teachers. It addition, specialized training to handle teaching learning practices with children of different types of disabilities are also under taken.

This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha question.