Fund-crunch hits schools offering spl edu

3.12.2015, HYDERABAD: No help seems to be coming from the Telangana government for schools offering special education to differently abled children in the city with most of them either running entirely on individual donations or funding from private companies under corporate social responsibility (CSR).

In the run up to World Disabled Day to be celebrated on Thursday, the Telangana school education department issued directives to government and private schools to celebrate it. But as harsh as it may sound, there have been little efforts taken to run these schools by the government.

While these schools play a vital role in the lives of those it has touched, the authorities concerned have to run from pillar to post to seek funds.

"We have to knock doors almost every day to get funds. The fear that the school might just stop functioning if we don't receive donations, always looms large," said DPK Babu, founder of Aashray Aakriti School for Hearing Impaired in Srinagar Colony.

Established in 1996, the school educates over 190 children hearing impaired children and employs 35 teachers. Although many reputed companies come forward to aid this school, the founder rues that a chunk of the funding goes into payment of salaries and other administrative work.

In fact, a Union Ministry of Human Resource Development report said that there are over 62,518 children with special needs studying in schools recognised by the Telangana school education department catering to students of diverse needs such as visually challenged, hearing impaired, mentally challenged and autistic, among others but most schools run short of funds.

These NGOs rue that while the government allocated Rs 30 crore for adult education in the 2015-16 budget, not a single rupee was allocated for institutes providing special education to differently abled children in the state.

Sources said that only 18 schools in Telangana are reportdly receiving partial funding from the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment but even these schools complain that it is not enough.

Take for instance, Devnar School for Blind. While the school educates over 550 students free of cost since many years, expansion has turned out to be a major hurdle for the school management. The situation is so dismal that a group of three students have to share a bunch of braile books due to lack of funds. "We get several enquiries each day. But it's not possible for us to accommodate so many children at once. If we receive more funds, the amenities provided to these children would be much better than what they are today," said Ramakrishna, the administrative head at Devnar School for Blind.