Only 3,833 schools have a dedicated special educator, while there are 1,29,452 children with disabilities enrolled across Tamil Nadu, according to a reply in the Rajya Sabha. Tamil Nadu has 57,566 schools.

Replying to the question of Rajya Sabha Member Rajinder Gupta recently, Union Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary cited the UDISE 2025-26 and said 22,11,226 students with disabilities were enrolled in schools across the country, while only 1,16,695 schools had a dedicated special educator.

Activists and educationists noted this showed an imbalance in the education imparted to children with disabilities as the ideal student-teacher ratio was 1:10. “This also points to a dearth in special educators as it is difficult to find teachers who have completed B.Ed multiple disabilities. The second problem is that the pay for the teacher is quite low, which discourages them from taking up this profession,” said Sujatha Sriram, an inclusion expert.

Under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan programme, each special educator visited 10 schools under their individualised education programme (IEP). M. Ravichandran, State general secretary of the Confederation of Associations for Persons with Mental Disabilities, said: “There are only around 2,000 special educators under this programme across the State. It’s wholly inadequate to cover the requirements of learning for children with disabilities. How can a single special educator covering over five schools ensure IEP for the children?”

He urged the government to conduct serious review assessments of the schemes aimed at persons with disabilities with the help of parents for better implementation of the programmes.

Pointing out there needs to be a stronger political will for the education of children with disabilities, S. Namburajan, member of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled, said: “The approach of the government is still from a charity position and not from a rights perspective. Only when the State government takes a stronger stand and bureaucratic apathy is discarded, will universal education be a reality.”