Govt teachers tag slow learners as mentally handicapped to maintain 100% record

Ludhiana: Students with disabilities at government schools pay the price as teachers mark slow learners as mentally handicapped in a bid to slot schools in the 100% pass category (handicapped students are not counted).
Now, district education officer (elementary ) Rajinder Kaur has instructed block primary education officers (BPEO) to upload the original data of these “handicapped students” accessed from inclusive education resource teachers.
The circular states, “The schools are uploading data of handicapped students on their own on e-punjab portal. They also do not share the details with inclusive education resource teachers, which is not equivalent to the data of PMS, a portal maintained by IERTs.”
It further states, “The education department is accountable to state-level officers for this flaw. All the BPEOs are instructed to contact IERTs and data should be uploaded at the earliest, but only after assessment of the child, on E-punjab. Besides this, the withdrawal of names should be informed to IERT cell. If not followed, the school head would be held accountable.”
It is pertinent to mention here that last year, as many as 5,827 handicapped students were registered in the education department. A BPEO who wished to remain unidentified, said, “Ever since the mission of 100% was announced by secretary Krishan Kumar, teachers tend to categorise students as slow learners to save the result of the school.”