Parents struggle as differently-able children denied admission in schools
New Delhi:�Ahead of International Disability Day on December 3, many parents complained that their children are not receiving proper education as differently-abled students are being denied admission to educational institutes. The hopes of Madhuri Patle, who was crowned Mrs India Universe in 2023, for her son's education have been dashed twice as she received rejection letters from a local school. Her three-year-old child suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD).
"My kid was attending normal pre-schooling and there was no issue with him there. I have been trying to get my child admitted to a school so that he could get the benefit of a proper learning atmosphere," Patle said.
She added that generally, children with epilepsy or DMD do attend regular schools. "What kind of facilities are they lacking?" she asked, raising a concern about the barriers that differently-abled children face in accessing quality education.
DMD is a genetic disorder that leads to progressive muscle degeneration and weakness due to a deficiency in a protein called dystrophin, which is essential for maintaining muscle cell integrity.
Gitika Anand and her family have faced a similar struggle.
After moving to Jaipur for a job, they soon learned that their child had DMD, prompting them to look for schools equipped to handle special needs. After trying for months to get her child into a good school, the applications were rejected.
"We had to leave our jobs and move back to Delhi. We wanted our child to be educated in an environment that understands his needs, but we found no options," she said.
Vinai, a father of a 15-year-old boy, shared the heartbreak of seeing his son miss out on education. For the last two years, his son has been at home, deprived of schooling and the home-schooling he once had.
"My child was home-schooled until Class 8, but I wanted him to experience a proper school environment for higher classes. Unfortunately, his admission was denied by several schools, citing a lack of facilities to assist him," Vinai explained.
"It is disheartening to see him sitting idle, unable to learn or interact with peers," he said.
Meanwhile, a school for autistic students at Vasant Kunj shared the challenges it faces in accommodating children suffering from DMD.
The school said a child suffering from DMD has extreme fragility, a tendency to fall and hyperactivity, which require one-on-one care, including academic and clinical sessions, activities of daily living (ADL) training and assistance during mealtimes.
"Our facility is not developed to serve the supportive care needs of a child with DMD," the school noted. It further emphasised that not only their institution but any mainstream or special needs school would require in-class caregiving support for such conditions. Without this, it claimed that the child would be at greater risk.
Rupa Rani from Gorakhpur also finds herself in a similar situation. Her 12-year-old son has been sitting at home for a year, longing for the school experience he has been denied.
"My son asks me every day when will he go to school and I have no answers for him," she said.
Last year, a school promised that it would enrol him but kept delaying the admission. "They kept saying he needed extra care, which they could not provide, but offered online classes as an alternative. We were grateful for any option, but after a few months, they decided not to continue with the online classes either," she added.