Special educators dejected over low pay; threaten massive stir against govt

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru:

Special educators in Karnataka are distressed due to inadequate amounts being paid to them as honoraria. Despite submitting several appeals to officials and elected representatives, their requests have fallen on deaf ears.

The Karnataka State Association for Special Educators and Supportive Staff announced a protest that would be held on Wednesday at Freedom Park. The association’s secretary, Vasant Kumar Shetty said, “Special educators are receiving a monthly honorarium of Rs 13,500, while caretakers, cooks, and wardens get less than Rs 10,000 per month. It’s a huge challenge to live on this amount.”

Kanti Harish, the association’s president, added that the government is discriminating between them and the special educators recruited under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. “While they receive a monthly honorarium of Rs 25,000, our pay has not been revised since 2014,” she said.

The teachers also said that a disparity exists between states. “In Goa, special educators are getting paid as per the sixth pay commission guidelines,” Shetty said, and questioned why Karnataka cannot emulate other states.

Schools run by non-governmental organisations in the state for children with special needs receive grant-in-aid from the state government under the child-centric grantin- aid scheme. Over 2,000 such special educators have been affected by these issues.

Special educators work with children with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism, hearing impairment, visual impairment and specific learning disability, among other conditions. The teachers also said that their suggestions regarding policies for the benefit of special children have not been taken into consideration.

They have announced a symbolic strike on Wednesday which will be attended by special educators (teachers), non-teaching staff, and parents of children with special needs. “If the authorities fail to address our concerns, we will begin a fast unto death from October 2 in Bengaluru,” Shetty said.

C M Muniraju from Dr S R Chandrasekhar Institute of Speech and Hearing and M C Ramesh from Vidyaranya (a non-profit organization) was also present.