The Delhi High Court has questioned the Delhi government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and a group of schools over a petition seeking facilities in private and aided schools for differently-abled students.
A division bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna July 6 issued notice and asked the government, the MCD and the schools why special education teachers were not recruited in the aided and unaided private schools.
The bench asked all the respondents to file their response by Aug 24.The court was hearing a petition filed by rights group Social Jurist counsel Ashok Agarwal.
“There is a failure on the part of the Delhi government and the MCD to ensure that the unaided recognised private schools and aided recognised private schools have adequate physical and academic infrastructure for the education of children with disabilities,” said the petition.
The petitioner said that it gathered sample information from over 200 unaided and aided private recognised schools which indicated that almost all 2,297 unaided private recognised schools did not have physical and academic infrastructure for students with disabilities.”There are over two lakh children with disabilities in Delhi. However, less than one percent of these children are in school. It is estimated, on the basis of the information collected, that hardly 1,000 students with disabilities are in these 2,297 unaided and aided private recognised schools,” said Agarwal.
