School Education and Tribal Development Minister Kedar Kashyap on Thursday said that on the directives of Chief Minister Raman Singh, the School Education Department had prepared a roadmap for education of children with deformities.
Chhattisgarh is among the top three States in the field of inclusive education. After Maharashtra and Bihar, Chhattisgarh is the third State where so many children were operated upon free-of-cost for facial deformities, he said.
Children falling in age-group of six to 14 years are operated upon for the facial deformity. The time-bound roadmap has been sent to all the district authorities, he said. Kashyap said that Chhattisgarh is the first State where a training programme is chalked out for teachers to tutor the deformed children.
There is a proposal to train 14,201 teachers in a five-day training camp. About 186 resource persons have been recruited in 26 districts and another 114 Resource Persons will be recruited soon. The School Education Minister said that inclusive education programme is meant for boosting the confidence of those children who are deformed in some way or the other.
About 900 blind children from Class-I to Class-VIII are provided with Braille books. Teachers are being trained for teaching deaf-mute children. About 200 resource persons were trained in physiotherapy, speech theraphy at Development Block-level.
Kashyap said these children will be medically examined, free operations will be performed and physiotherapy for serious children, speech therapy, special allowance for transport of school children and special aids will be provided.
The children suffering from bone and skin deformities are also included in the project. The School Education Department and the Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission in a joint effort arranged for the operations for cleft lips of the school children.
The State-level function is to be organised at 11:00 am at JR Dhani Government Girls’ Madhyamik School at Kalibadi Chowk in Raipur on February 7. Singh will be the chief guest on the occasion. lok Sabha MP Ramesh Bais will preside over the function.
Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Brijmohan Agrawal, Tribal , Scheduled Caste Development, Minority Welfare Minister Kedar Kashyap, Public Works Minister Rajesh Munat, Raipur Rural MlA Satyanarayan Sharma, Raipur(North) MlA Shrichand Sundrani and Raipur Municipal Corporation Mayor Pramod Dubey will be special guests at the function.
About 500 children were operated upon for cleft lips and palate free of cost and brought into the mainstream of education under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s Inclusive Education Scheme in the current fiscal year 2014-15 in Chhattisgarh.
About 230 school children were operated upon for cleft lips and palate and there is no trace of any sign. A total of 527 school children were cured of all facial deformities.