Special Educators entitled to be treated on par with regular teachers: Calcutta High Court
In a recent judgment allowing a batch of writ petitions filed by the All Bengal Special Educators’ Assocaition demanding equal pay for equal work, a single judge of the Calcutta High Court asked the State Government to immediately take steps for granting approval to the regularisation of the Special Educators as Assistant Teachers in normal schools.
The Court observed that the object of the Special Educators is to educate the disabled children in general schools for full participation and equality in every field whether it is field of education, field of higher education, field of service, or other specialized fields so that the disabled children should not be neglected by the other people (non-disabled) of the society. It was further observed “ It is also cannot be ignored that to bring those physically challenged persons in the main stream the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 has come into force. Therefore, just to educate those disabled children, the teachers possessing special degree/training are required. But unfortunately…the Special Educators are being miserably neglected by the Central Government as well as by the State Government.”
The court ruled that if the Special Educators have not been given equal pay scale at par with their counterparts who are teachers for the normal students then it is nothing but an instance of clear discrimination. Such discrimination in the field of service cannot be accepted by any Court of law, more so for the reason that the Special Educated Teachers are discharging similar duties and responsibilities like that of the teachers who are involved to discharge their duties for the non-disabled students.
A further direction was passed to the authorities to take steps to formulate a policy to create permanent posts of Special Educators as Assistant Teachers in the different Government and/or Government aided and/or non-Government schools in the State of West Bengal for normal/non-disabled students.
A copy of the judgment can be downloaded here .