Mysuru:The Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) is recognizing the education programme, ‘Teachers Education for Persons with Special Education Needs’ (TEPSE) in universities across the country. A total of 40 universities have courses directly being run by departments other than departments of special education or departments of education, said RCI, New Delhi chairperson Sudesh Mukhopadhyay
She was delivering the key note address on ‘Inclusive education of persons with disabilities journey and miles ahead’ at a two-day international conference on Inclusive education-perspective and challenges’ organized by Karnataka State Open University (KSOU).
Mukhopadhyay said TEPSE is a scheme meant for assisting departments of education to launch special teacher preparation programme for Bed, Med, degree courses in one of the disability areas. Scheme encourages universities to start Med courses, in addition to salary grant a maximum of Rs 2 lakh onwards towards procurement of books and appliances and Rs 4 lakh is given if both Bed and Med level courses are running.
However, these grants can be sanctioned only if staff has been appointed by universities. She appealed participants to lobby with respective states to access these funds for welfare special students.
At present, the scheme is running in very few universities in the country. RCI recognized institutes need this financial support to deliver quality education and also it is high time that University Grant Commission (UGC) plays a pro-active role. It needs to work upon
committees constituted for the purpose, she added.
Further delivering inaugural address University of Mysore V-C K S Rangappa said according to 2011 census, over 26.8 million people in the country are afflicted by one or the other kind of disability, which is equivalent to 2.68% of the population. It is fact that many children in rural areas may not get identified, as disabilities are not visible and needs skilled personnel to identify the special needs.
