Mumbai: The Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE) has ensured firm action from its schools to fulfill its initiatives by providing equal education opportunity to all those children, including those with ‘special needs’ by issuing a circular reminding them not to deny admission to differently abled students.

According to a circular by CBSE Chairperson Vineet Joshi, "Schools denying admission to differently abled children on any pretext will be liable to strict action making them even disaffiliated from the Board's list."

Based on the children with special needs having different abilities and skill sets, the circular urges the schools to compulsorily recruit a special educator to create an "individual evaluation programme" for special children, based on their abilities and skill sets.

Special children include a range of kids, including physically challenged, visually impaired, hearing impaired, spastics, and those with Down Syndrome, Learning Disability and autism. LD can include dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and other conditions.

In a bid to include those special children at par with their normal counterparts, the CBSE proposes to allow a parent or an aide to sit with the child in class and motivate him so that he is able to follow the teacher during classroom interactions and does not fall apart form the pace of the class.

"Now that the board is set to make the Class X board exam optional and replace it with a system of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), the new policy would be easier to implement," said a senior CBSE official.

"This new policy will surely create a new realm of education in the country where schools will concentrate on the quality and not the quantity. Earlier, they were obsessed with the marks of their toppers and even used it to advertise their school. Such an activity marred the chances of children with special needs to get admission as the schools felt that these kids would spoil their record at the board exams. But with this new policy of boards losing significance, schools should have no issue to comply with the directive," he added.

For schools, which do not offer inclusive education, the CBSE is planning to pull them up by starting to grade them.

"Thank God!," came a heavy sigh of relief from a lawyer, Sheetal Kumar, for the decision, who was battling against an apathetic system leading to the Bombay High Court's landmark ruling on LD three years ago.

Avnita Bir, principal of R N Podar School, Santa Cruz felt elated upon the landmark decision and said that, "CBSE is one of the most child-friendly boards in the country and I feel this is a very proactive step on their part."

Cherian George, principal of Kendriya Vidyalaya, IIT Powai, also gave the policy a thumbs-up.

Usha Bhatia, principal of the Shapurji Billimoria Trust's teacher training course, the first in Maharashtra to train teachers in integrated education said, "This initiative will definitely boost the morale of those special kids who wish to pursue education. I think that the board will definitely spread awareness about kids with special needs."

With the positive vibes coming with the new directive, there are however some skeptics as well who question the implementation of the policy.

"Are there going to be special teachers to teach those special kids? Is the infrastructure and training to implement such a policy well equipped?" asked the mother of a boy with Learning Disability.

Psychiatrist Dr. Harish Shetty, a pioneer in the LD movement in the country, said there are innumerable excuses in India to not to implement inclusive education.

He said inclusive education does not need massive funds, just a change in mindset.