Kerala: Education, social justice departments to decide on special schools

THIRUVANANTHAPURAMM: With confusion prevailing on granting aided category status to 33 special needs schools, social justice secretary Biju Prabhakar has said that the education and social justice departments will take appropriate decisions. Mr Biju Prabhakar held talks with the organisations working for the welfare of special needs children on Saturday.

The LDF government wants mild and moderate special needs students to be shifted to regular schools. Earlier, the special schools issue had come under the ambit of education department. The chief minister's office forwarded it to the social justice department causing confusion among the various organisations which feared that the special needs students will not be eligible for free mid-day meals.

"The social justice department has to take care of different aspects of medical care for special needs students. The mid-day meal scheme and education belong to the education department," said a special needs teacher. Social justice department is planning to bring in a monitoring mechanism on the administrative functioning of the 314 special schools in the state, which include the Bud schools as well. State Institute for the Mentally Challenged at Pangappara here will act as a nodal agency to integrate the functioning of all the special schools.

A detailed report on addressing the issues of special schools will be submitted to the social justice department on Tuesday, The State Association for Co-ordinating Rehabilitation and Empowerment of Developmentally Disabled (SACRED) and Association for Intellectually Disabled (AID) are also planning to meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to present their demands.