Jaipur: The Education Department is launching block-level counseling sessions for parents of Children with Special Needs (CwSN) to enhance access to key support services under the Inclusive Education program.This initiative aims to help rural families secure essential assistive devices, prosthetic aids, and specialised teaching-learning materials. This targeted effort bridges critical service gaps, ensuring that children with severe disabilities no longer face delays caused by limited local support and information.“Our aim is to counsel parents and encourage them to move away from tendencies of over-protection or abandonment regarding students (CwSN) and instead foster a normal home environment and treat the students normally,” said a senior official.For every session, only 50 parents and children will be invited, said officials, and a maximum provision of Rs 15,000 per block has been made for the parental counselling programme.Officials said that counselling will be conducted for parents of CwSN belonging to categories such as visual impairment, hearing impairment, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy and multiple disabilities.The district office of Samagra Shiksha will formulate the plan for the parental counselling programme and disseminate it to all blocks. The chief block education officer (CBEO) of the concerned block will ensure effective monitoring of the program, and the CBEO will be personally held responsible if any irregularities are detected during supervision.Officials added that to ensure adequate attendance of parents and CwSN, advance notification will be sent to the parents.“During counseling, the principle of empathy—rather than mere sympathy—should be adopted in interactions with parents so that they do not feel a sense of inferiority,” stated the guidelines issued by the department for the counselling process.In the counselling sessions, parents will also be informed about maintenance and ensuring continued functionality of assistive devices used by a student.
