Thousands of Children Get Home Schooling in India

Poor children who do not have access to proper schooling in India. Photo: Rakesh Raman

Currently, 143,823 children with special needs (CWSN) are being provided home schooling under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in India.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD), Upendra Kushwaha on Monday in the Lok Sabha.

Under SSA, home-based education is provided to those children who have severe intellectual and physical disabilities and who cannot access neighbourhood school owing to their condition.

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Home-based education is provided to that child, who after a comprehensive assessment by a team of doctors and specialists is recommended home schooling. It is not given due to preference or because of absence of choice due to inaccessible public transport.

School Education

Transport and escort facilities are provided to CWSN under the programme to facilitate their access to a neighbourhood school. Under the SSA, 1.94 lakh CWSN and 1.70 lakh CWSN were provided transport support and escort support respectively during 2015-16.

Meanwhile, the funds for education allocated to the Ministry of HRD during the last three years and the current year are as follows:

According to the Ministry of HRD, the allocation of funds depends on the requirement and other factors such as absorption capacity and availability of resources.