Govt's blurred vision hits blind schools

HYDERABAD: Has the state government hit where it hurts the most? It perhaps has with two schools for the visually impaired in the city refusing to open, protesting an ���insensitive'' government move.
These government schools for the visually impaired, one in Malakpet and another in Darul Shifa, are among the five schools in the state that are being shifted from the education department to the department of disabled welfare, as per a GO issued earlier this year.The Andhra Pradesh Welfare Committee of the Blind (APWCB) is now questioning why, after several decades of being under the education department, are these schools being shown the door.
Both the schools have not reopened after the vacations that ended on June 12. ���It is simply injustice and discrimination against the visually impaired community. The way the government is trying to sideline the physically challenged by confining it to the disabled department is degrading the community,��� said an agitated N Venkat Ramulu, chairman of APWCB, adding that the government's decision is a violation of their right to equality.
Apart from these five schools run by the education department for children with disabilities, 11 are being run by the department of disabled welfare of which five are for the visually and rest for the hearing impaired. Its being clubbed under one umbrella department that has irked the students and teachers of blind schools. Ramulu argues that the government should try and have such schools under various departments as against bundling all schools for the disabled under one department. ���Why are the visually challenged deprived of their right to choose the school they like?��� they question.
Apart from these two schools, one school for the blind in Kadapa and two others for the hearing impaired in Hyderabad and East Godavari districts, are mentioned in the GO.
A senior official of the department of women development, child and disabled welfare, however, maintains that bringing all such schools under one umbrella will lead to better management and hence better condition as they will get ���special attention���. But APWCB members fear that the condition of these schools would only get worse with this move pointing out that the schools presently under department of disabled welfare are in a bad condition.
���If the government wants to improve the schools' condition, it should work to develop schools under both the departments,��� says Ramulu.
However, state officials claim that teachers are ���encouraging the students to protest���. They explain that many teachers in blind schools do not hold a degree in special education, which becomes a mandatory qualification once the schools move under the department of disabled welfare. In the absence of the degree, these teachers remain with the school education department and can be posted anywhere in the state.
Senior teachers however, deny such apprehensions. Meanwhile, the APWCB threatens to go on ���fast unto death��� if the GO is not cancelled even as the government stands firm on its decision.
Clearly, it is the over 140 students of these two schools who are the victims of this stand off.
While children their age are busy attending school, students of these two schools are taking part in a relay hunger strike, which reached its 78th day on Wednesday.