A recent study with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment projects that the shortage of special educators and rehabilitation specialists specially trained to teach the disabled population will be over one lakh by 2016.
The study Projection of Human Resource Requirement in the Field of Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities conducted by the Rehabilitations Council of India (RCI) through Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR), Delhi estimated that the shortage of rehabilitation professionals including special education teachers is likely to grow to 1,04,531 in the next two years.
The study which covered the period 2007-2016, showed that while the student-teacher ratio in cases of visually challenged population was 1:1, the ratio for the hearing impaired population is barely 1:10.
The ministry’s effort at setting up Indian Sign language Research and Training Centre on trial on project basis in 2011 to help train the deaf and mute also suffered a major set-back, after the Indira Gandhi National Open University which was entrusted with the institute sat on the project even after two years of laying the foundation stone.
“The Rs 44 crore institute project was mandated to help the hearing impaired population by training them in professional courses but unfortunately the project could never take off,” said an official in the ministry.
The Ministry took up the matter with IGNOU officials in April, but the project is still to make any headway. “Changes cannot happen overnight. We have so far been able to increase the quota of jobs for the disabled in public enterprises. With an increase in seats in jobs and growing demand, there will definitely be a supply of special teachers,” said the official.
The official also pointed out that the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) in its Gazette Notification published on 23 August, 2010 had prescribed Diploma in Special Education and Bachelor of Special Education as one of the eligibility criteria for recruitment of teachers.
The RCI offers Bachelor of Education (BEd) and Diploma in Education (DEd) courses in Special Education for training people of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, hearing impaired, mentally challenged and visually Impaired to name a few.