25 lakh children with special needs enrolled in schools: Smriti Irani

New Delhi: A total of 25.03 lakh Children With Special Needs (CWSN) have been enrolled in schools across the country this year and 2.06 lakh such kids are being covered through home based education. HRD Minister Smriti Irani said in Lok Sabha that education of CWSN is an important component of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and 25.03 lakh such children were enrolled in schools in current year. [caption id=“attachment_1822597” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  HRD Minister Smriti Irani. AP[/caption] Irani said during Question Hour that steps undertaken in SSA include quality improvement through provision for annual in-service teacher training, distribution of free text books, recruitment of additional teachers to improve pupil-teacher ratios, academic support for schools and teachers through block and cluster resources, and continuous and comprehensive evaluation system and pupil assessment surveys. The Minister said a sub-programme under the SSA namely ‘Padhe Bharat Badhe Bharat’ has been launched in all states and Union Territories to improve language development and to create a positive interest in mathematics. “All states and UTs are taking interest in implementing this programme. An amount of Rs 461.38 crore has been sanctioned to states/UTs in 2014-15 for implementing this focussed programme in classes I and II,” she said. PTI