The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Delhi University (DU) to
make certain that its new course structure under the four-year
undergraduate programme does not connote a "machinery of failure" for
the visually impaired and other disabled students and that the
authorities provide all the facilities required.
Asking the university to ensure that such students do not suffer
because of a transition in haste, a bench of Justices B S Chauhan and
Dipak Misra said: "Their (students') grievances look to be genuine, and
it has to be looked into sympathetically. Sensitivity for such students
must grow."
The bench said DU must make "genuine" efforts to see that
disabled students cope with the new curricula even as the court could
not dictate how should they teach their students. "These people should
not suffer. You cannot give them a new system of education and provide a
machinery for failure. There has to be progressive attitude along with
empathy," the court said.
On a petition by NGO Sambhavana, which represented persons with
disabilities, the bench had on Monday sought a comprehensive affidavit
from the university over the steps taken to redress the grievances of
such students in the four-year undergraduate degree courses, slated to
be implemented from this year.
Advocate Pankaj Sinha, who appeared for the NGO, pointed out that
DU had hurried into the course without making proper infrastructure
arrangements for library and laboratories, accessible reading material
and trained teachers. He also complained against compulsory subjects of
maths and science for visually impaired students, who are not usually
taught these subjects after Class VIII.
Defending the university, senior advocate Pinky Anand told the
bench that DU's empowered committee had gone to great lengths to take
care of all needs of such students and prepared its report to with
recommendations for inclusive and holistic education. She said the
report was placed before the academic council a day ago, and it was
adopted.
Source : The Indian Express , 30th May 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment