NOIDA: The state government has ordered the appointment of four special educators to the four government primary schools under PM Shri Yojana in Gautam Budh Nagar for imparting education to children with disabilities. Officials said the appointees would work in other government schools, if required. Currently, only eight special educators have the charge of over 2,500 students with disabilities in the district. The district, however, requires at least 250 special educators, according to the education ministry guidelines, which state there should be one teacher for every 10 such students at the primary level. The primary role of special educators is to guide children with disabilities, with their shortage hampering equal education rights. Moreover, many special educators claimed that conducting surveys, keeping records, and other bureaucratic work assigned to them further eats into their teaching time. "Starting with surveys and finding children with disabilities to enrolling them to schools, helping them get medical certificates and enrolling them for scholarships, there is ample work every month. Education takes a back seat in all this. Even though we want to mentor the children, we do not get time to do so," said a special educator on the condition of anonymity. Another said each block has two special educators, and each handles teaching responsibilities in over 50 schools. "It is impossible to be present at every school every day. Some schools do not have any children with disabilities, or some have only one or two. But ideally, we should visit each as any school could enrol them. If special educators arent there at a school, how can children with disabilities get admission there?" she added. The new recruits, including special educators for intellectual disability and hearing experts, will primarily teach at two government primary schools in Dadri and two others in Jewar and may take over responsibilities in other schools only occasionally, said officials. But, this will not take the ratio of teacher to students anywhere near the 1:10 requirement. Shalini, a special educator at a private school in Noida, said, "The children with disabilities require more attention and care. Their language and understanding are different from other children. The general teachers or general way of teaching is beyond their understanding."However, Aishwarya Lakshmi, basic siksha adhikari (BSA) of GB Nagar, said, "The higher authorities decide on the recruitments. In the next two months, we will recruit four more special educators for the district."The district aims to enrol 2,866 children with disabilities into the formal education system this year. "So far, 2,546 students have been identified and enrolled at schools, nearly 89% of the total target. We have instructed special educators to provide home-based education to those who cant travel to schools."The situation is no way better in Ghaziabad. Officials said there are 14 special educators for 2,231 children with disabilities across the district. "There has been a proposal to provide a 90-day training to general school teachers now. This way, there will be one nodal teacher at every school," said Rakesh Kumar, DC of inclusive education in Ghaziabad.The selection of the special educators to the schools under PM Shri Yojana will be through the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal. As many as 693 special educators will be recruited in schools under PM Shri Yojana across Uttar Pradesh. Officials said the selection process will be complete by October 26 and the efficiency certification process by November 5. By November 10, each district will send a status report on the recruitments to the state project officer. The selected educators will be responsible for training the children with disabilities, conduct surveys, and maintain documentation of the children, said officials.

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