The resource center has been established by the government under Education for All (EFA) program in a bid to increase access of physically challanged children to mainstream education. [break]
As the District Education Office (DEO) of Saptari has paid no attention to management of disabled-friendly infrastructure and suitable education materials for the sightless students, the resource centre of the school has remained ineffective.
The school administration and other stakeholders have complained that the DEO has been overlooking the resource centre, which was brought into operation from the academic year 2006-2007 even after making repeated request to manage the centre properly.
Stating that teaching methodology for physically handicapped students is totally different, Birendra Kumar Biswokarma, a teacher at PBHSS said, “We haven´t been able to impart education to sightless students due to lack of disabled-friendly classrooms and study materials.”
Likewise, Mina Thakur, a teacher of PBHSS attributed lack of disabled-friendly classrooms to budget crunch. According to her, eight sightless students are currently enrolled in the school.
DEO, Saptari has established five resource centers in a bid to provide education to physically challenged students. However, all these resource centers share the same plight.
Birendra Kumar Chaudhary, appointed as coordinator of the managing-centre, is busy working at examination section of DEO most of the time. “The DEO is holding discussions with the Ministry of Education and the Department of Education to construct disabled-friendly classrooms in these schools.” he said.
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