Delhi government to hire over 250 special educators
In Delhi, there are around 11,672 students with different needs studying in 952 of the 1,028 government-run schools.
The Directorate of Education (DoE) in Delhi is planning a push for inclusive education, with more special educators, resource centres, and zonal and district supervisors to ensure that no child is left behind.
In Delhi, there are around 11,672 students with different needs studying in 952 of the 1,028 government-run schools.
There are 1,024 sanctioned and notified posts for special educators to cater to the needs of these kids, of which 767 posts are already filled. Among those, 434 are regular teachers and 333 are guest teachers, according to Ajay Kumar Singh, the state coordinator for Inclusive Education for Disabled at Secondary Stage (IEDSS).
“Even though there were not enough special educators, each one of the 952 schools got the services of one, because we shared resources between schools and ensured that all of them got at least partial services, with visiting special educators,” said Singh.
Saumya Gupta, the director of education, said the remaining posts will also be filled within 10 days or so, as the high court lifted the stay on hiring new guest teachers earlier this month.
“For the remaining 257 vacant posts, we have a panel of 1,344 applications. The documents of these candidates have already been verified and their merit lists have been prepared at the district level,” said Singh, while adding that if all the 1,024 posts are filled, essentially all schools would have at least one special educator.
However, the DoE is looking to drive up the ratio of special educators to schools, and hopes to have at least two special educators in every school. An additional 1,080 posts have been approved by the administration reform department, and will be forwarded to the financial department for concurrence.
Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal will then be forwarded the proposal for approval, after which the posts will be notified.
“Of the 1,080 posts, we will be looking at 724 trained graduate teachers, and 300 post graduate teachers. So we will have an additional 1,024 special educators. We are also looking to hire 12 resource centre coordinators, 29 zonal supervisors, 12 district supervisors, and three assistant directors of inclusive education,” said Singh.
DoE is also planning on opening 14 resource centres, one in each of the 12 districts and two at the headquarters, to provide speech therapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy services for the children with special needs. Students would be able to visit the centre in their district for any therapeutic services they may need once every week.
“We already have the equipment for these centres. In fact, for four, we also have the rooms set up, and we are hopeful that these will start functioning soon, maybe even as early as January 2018,” said Singh.
