Satish Chandra

Ranchi, April 17: In an earnest attempt to make learning more friendly, the human resource development department, under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, has decided to provide special educational packages to around 57,000 disabled students enrolled in state-run primary schools.

The proposed programme — funds to the tune of Rs 24 crore for which might be approved — will see educational kits, comprising notebooks, pencil and compass boxes and school bags, among other things, being distributed among disabled children between 5-14 years.

This apart, the department also plans to provide Braille books, talking textbooks, computers with speech software to the kids, besides assigning one sign language interpreter for every school.

“We have plans of providing regular training in inclusive education to primary level teachers so that they are better trained to teaching children suffering from disabilities,” state in-charge of inclusive education of Jharkhand Education Project Council Abhinav Kumar said.

He added that all primary schools would become friendlier for special children by 2020, as envisaged by state human resource development department.

Prodded about a date, when the project might be implemented, Kumar said the budgetary allocation for the scheme would be finalised by April 23, post which they would set the ball rolling in all primary schools.

“We have supplied around 857 hearing kits to disabled students in places like Jamshedpur, Hazaribagh, Giridih, Bokaro, Latehar and Deoghar,” Kumar said.

State disability commissioner Satish Chandra, in turn, said that they were in the process of supplying Braille scripts to visually challenged children across the state.

“We have appointed 150 special resource persons who will act as mobile teachers who visit primary schools in different blocks of the state and teach the deaf and mute students,” Chandra said.

He added that they were in the process of recruiting more resource persons who would have diplomas in special education.

“We want to have three teachers in every block who can teach the disabled kids,” Chandra said, adding that they would provide book allowances for blind children and also set up resource rooms in schools.