Visually impaired students and teachers urge minister: Reopen special schools soon

The group of students and teachers also organised a demonstration outside Nibedita Bhawan, claiming that the online system of education has adversely affected the academic life of visually impaired students, “who practically could not learn anything in the past one-and-a-half years due to the closure of blind schools” amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The Forum for Students with Disabilities (Jadavpur University) and Blind Persons Association took part in the protest.

“Due to the Covid pandemic situation and the consequent online system of education, these students are missing out a lot. There has been no academic development of these students since physical classes stopped. Also, several posts in blind schools are vacant and the state government must intervene to ensure that these differently abled student get best quality of education,” said Saikat Kumar Kar of Blind Persons Association.

A class ten student of Ananda Bhawan Jagatpur of Adarsha Vidyalaya, Purnima Mahato, said, “I have been promoted to Class X without any examination or internal assessment. Because of online classes, we have missed out the whole year.” Braille textbooks have also not been provided to several such students

“If we had the books, at least we would have read and understand the subject matter,” she added. The association also demanded that all the vacant posts for teaching and non-teaching staff at all the special schools must be filled at the earliest.

“Around 60 per cent posts of special schools must be reserved for such candidates,” said Kar.

In its memorandum to minister Chatterjee, the association also demanded that all sorts of apparatus related to the education of the differently abled students, including Braille paper, must be exempted from GST or entry fees and that text books in braille method must be available at all levels of education.