The non-availability of ramps for children with special needs at Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 45-A, became a cause of concern for the Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CCPCR), a team of which visited the school today.

There are more than 10 children with special needs (CWSN) enrolled in the school. Classes for some of them are being run on the first and second floor. A school official claimed that multiple requests had been made to the UT Education Department regarding the need for a ramp in the school, but to no avail.

“The school building requires a multi-storey ramp as shifting all classes in which special needs students are studying to the ground floor is not feasible. One of the students with locomotors disability even scales three floors. His parents have requested us not to shift his class to the ground floor as doing so will only demoralise him.
But, we feel bad when we see students struggling here. It is a big problem,” said a government school teacher.

Several other government schools are facing the same problem. With barely a month left, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) vision of disabled-friendly infrastructure in schools by March 2020
seems unattainable now.

The Sector 45-A school building is one of the oldest buildings as it was established in 1986. The latest UDISE 2018-19 report on ‘infrastructure availability’ reveals that 23 government schools do not have ramps and 38 government schools are yet to have disabled-friendly toilets.

On March 22, 2017, the ministry had issued instructions to ensure barrier-free environment in buildings, which should include ramps, rails, lifts, an adaption of toilets for wheelchair users, braille signages and auditory signals and tactile flooring.

The school authorities also raised concerns over damage to school property by Burail residents. “They use the school playground after official hours. Sports equipment and CCTV cameras are found broken on
a regular basis. The fencing around the school isn’t proper due to which people can scale up the wall of the school,” school teachers told the CCPCR team. Another school ground was lying unutilised due to
accumulation of dirty water. — TNS
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/no-ramp-for-children-with-special-needs-at-sector-45-govt-school-43807