To The Hon. Governor Govt. of West Bengal Governor House Kolkata
Sir,
We are the Special Educators or Rehabilitation Professionals from West Bengal. To achieve this distinction, we all have had to go through a professional training imparted by the Rehabilitation Council of India. According to the Act -1992, u/s 13, we possess the sole right to impart to education as well as arrange rehabilitation for children/persons with special needs.
Of late, the process of educating children/persons with special needs has undergone some major changes. Previously, children with special needs had the only option of getting admitted to schools designed specifically for them. However , the scenario has
changed a lot since the introduction of Integrated Education for Disabled and Inclusive Education, which has opened the door of public schools to these children. This has benefited them hugely by propelling the overall growth of their mental and physical aspects.
Currently, we are working under the Sarva Siksha Mission, which targets to turn the Inclusive Education into a success. But in West Bengal , we are recruited by NGOs, most of which are controlled by the leaders of the ruling political organization. We are the victims of their tyranny. For example, they demand hefty amounts from the candidates during the recruitment process. In addition to this, they forcefully deduct some amount from our honorarium (approx. Rs. 500-1000).Moreover, they compel us to do things related to that private organization and which are not even closely related to our profession. In case of any protest, they always threaten us saying that we might get fired or we might not receive our honorarium.
Contd…………P/2
- 2 -
With introduction of Inclusive Education , about 200000 children with special needs are studying in general schools. General teachers do not possess the competencies that are required to teach these children and they have admitted that also. Yet, for some unknown reason, our state government has not taken any initiative to recruit even a single special educator in a general schools. As a result, children with special needs are not getting what they need which would enable them to get back to the main stream. We think, to make Inclusive Education a success , there is a need of creating an infrastructure which would aim at providing these children with what they require. Keeping the above things in mind, we would beg to put forward to you our demands:-
1.Special Educators should be immediately recruited in the general schools running under the School Education Department ,West Bengal.
2. Scrap the N.G.O. structure which currently exists in the Sarva Siksha Mission in West Bengal.
The Government of India has spent thousand of crores
in the Sarva Siksha Mission and yet we, the special educators are being deprived because of
this strange rule of recruiting special educators
through N.G.Os. We , the special educators of West Bengal request you take appropriate actions to relieve us from our plight in order to ensure that we can work for the children with special needs helping them on their way helping them to emerge as good and responsible citizens of our country.
Thanking you
Yours sincerely
