the goan I network
PANAJI
The government polytechnic college in Altinho has been running the central government’s “Scheme for Integrating persons with Disabilities in the mainstream of technical and vocational education” since the year 2000. However, staff under the scheme have been earning a paltry sum, as the salaries of the teachers have not been revised since the start of the scheme, one of the faculty members told “The Goan.”
“For the short term courses, instructors get paid Rs 500 per student per month. And the maximum students we are allowed to admit in a short term course is 10,” said the faculty member. This would mean that the instructor earns Rs 5,000 per month for teaching persons with disabilities who enroll for the course. A short term course under the scheme lasts for about four to six months, depending on the course. The institution offers 17 short term courses including computer graphics and beauticians course, and other practical skills that persons with disabilities can pick up to be independent.
Even the remuneration offered to the students for the full time diploma courses could do with an increase, said the faculty member. For example, traveling allowance for day scholars per month is only Rs 200, while a monthly scholarship of only Rs 250 is offered to students.
While the scheme was first set up under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), and was in the year 2018-19 shifted to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, no funds have come from the Centre since the year 2012, project champion of the scheme Kavita Mone told “The Goan,” a fact which was confirmed by principal Luis R Fernandes.
Fortunately for students of the scheme, the state government has come forth with sanctions over the last two years so as to tide over the department.
However, Mone laments that a lot of infrastructural development has been pending, which could well have been undertaken if the funds came in. “If the funds from the central government came in, we could give the students many infrastructural benefits, buy new equipment, and expand the department,” she said.
The central government funds owed to the Department are at least Rs 8 lakhs a year, making the total denied to the department at least half a crore. Without the state government pitching in, the Department’s funds would be in the negative, said Mone.
The courses for students with disability will commence from July 1.
