Pic for representational purpose
Pune: The Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan Parishad (Maharashtra Primary Education Council) has directed all education officers to deploy special educators to conduct a survey of children with special needs (CWSN) in the 0-18 age group.The move aims to ensure that no child with special needs is excluded from mainstream education.The council has also instructed that these special educators should not be assigned any other administrative work until the survey is completed. According to various studies and reports, the number of out-of-school and dropout children is among the highest in the CWSN category. The survey aims to identify such children and enrol them in mainstream education.
A similar exercise conducted last year led to the identification and inclusion of around 14,000 additional children with disabilities in the state’s education system.Bhavna Rajnor, deputy director of the Maharashtra Prathamik Shikshan Parishad, said 1,67,728 children with special needs were identified during the 2024-25 survey. The number increased to 1,81,724 in 2025-26.Rajnor, explaining the importance of the survey under Samagra Shiksha, said, “If we had not conducted the survey, thousands of children would have been deprived of the educational and medical benefits they are entitled to.
In rural areas, parents sometimes do not send children with special needs to school. So, our special educators conduct door-to-door surveys to ensure that every child gets an opportunity to learn and eventually earn a livelihood with dignity.
”The survey covers children up to the age of 18 because many children with special needs require more time to learn.“We provide several allowances for 10 months, including Rs 600 per month each towards transport and helper support, Rs 200 per month as an incentive and another Rs 200 per month for reader services.
We also provide need-based assistance, such as wheelchairs for children with mobility issues, and hearing assessments and assistive devices for children with hearing impairments. If a child has multiple disabilities, special educators visit their homes to provide education.
However, to extend all these benefits, we first need to identify every child with special needs in the state, which is why the survey is so important,” Rajnor said.Gajanan Dhawale, a special educator involved in the survey, said special educators are assigned to a cluster of schools rather than a single institution.“I currently work with 132 students across 21 categories of disabilities recognised by the state. During the survey, I identified six additional children who had never attended school because of their disabilities. They belonged to historically, socially and economically disadvantaged communities and lived far from the main village,” he said.Once the children are identified, their details are uploaded to the portal, and then they are provided age-appropriate education based on their disability, with the curriculum adapted to their needs.“We also help them obtain disability certificates and access various govt benefits,” Dhawale said.