Shillong: A campaign was launched across the Northeast on Wednesday to urge the state governments in the region to make inclusive education mandatory in all schools.

"Right to Education is the right of every child irrespective of whether they have any disability or not. We know many children are unable to attend school because of accessibility issues or classroom adaptation or the material available is not suitable for a special child," said Raise (Regional Action on Inclusive Education) North East project director Bibhu Dutta Sahu, on the sidelines of the launch of the Ring the Bell campaign here

The campaign involves ringing the bell for one minute by children to create awareness on the importance of inclusive education in both private and government schools.

"We hope this campaign will make the new government in Meghalaya take Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) very seriously and make inclusive education mandatory in all schools," Sahu said. "In most schools, they (children with disability) are rejected because teachers are unaware of the proper skills. Secondly, the study material available is only for normal children."

The Raise North East project was started in 2016 in five northeastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, by CBM India Trust and 12 other NGOs, to promote disability-inclusive education in all schools.

The campaign was launched in all the five states simultaneously.

Raise North East is aiming to reach 75 SSA schools in the Northeast, with the aim of setting them up as "model schools", along with 15 partner institutions, of which Jyoti Sroat Inclusive School and Mary Rice Centre for Special Education are in Shillong. It is aiming to reach 90 schools by December 2020.

On training programmes for SSA teachers, Sahu said 30 private school teachers received intensive training in the last two years, who will now train the SSA teachers and assist them on how to approach children with disabilities.

"We have 15 partner institutions and we train two teachers each from them. In Meghalaya, we have four partners and have trained eight teachers," he said, adding that SSA teachers would be brought to the special schools for learning practices.

Expressing concern over children with disabilities being denied admission in normal schools, campaign coordinator Josafine Lyngdoh, from Mary Rice Centre, said: "Every school should take in special needs children so as to bring them into the mainstream.It is very difficult for SSA teachers to teach children with special needs so we act as facilitators. The training we receive will be passed onto the SSA teachers."