Special schools operating without registration given grants: CAG

Even as the state continues to permit more and more NGOs to open schools for special children every year, an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has exposed massive irregularities in the functioning of such institutions, reported Diana Sahu of The New Indian Express.

The CAG report, which was released recently, has found that both the Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) department and School and Mass Education (SME) department have violated norms by allowing 35 per cent of the audited schools to operate without registration. Worse, officials concerned including collectors never monitored functioning of such schools despite government mandate.

In the state, the responsibility of educating children with disabilities lies primarily with private bodies. Currently, there are 108 special schools of which four are under the administrative control of the School and Mass Education department.

The remaining schools with a student strength of 6,815 are run by different NGOs under the administrative supervision of the SSEPD department. All the schools need to be registered under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act and also follow RTE norms. Every month, the NGOs get grant-in-aid from the government to run the schools.

The CAG which audited functioning of 65 NGO-run schools in eight districts over a period of five years beginning 2018, found out that registration of 23 schools had lapsed between 2009 and 2023 and although they had submitted renewal applications to SSEPD department, the latter never processed them.

While a majority of the schools lacked infrastructure, minimum amenities and failed to provide aids and appliances to the differently-abled students, the collectors and district social security officers (DSSOs) concerned overlooked the problems by not conducting routine checks.