More than 9000 children with special needs have been left in the lurch as the BUDS schools across the state remain closed since the beginning of the lockdown last year. Even as other students attend online classes, most of these students with intellectual and psycho-social disabilities are essentially left to fend on their own.
BUDS schools are run by the government arm Kudumbashree with the help of local self-governing bodies for children from economically challenged families. Since 2004, 293 schools and resource centres have been created which cater to 9,002 people with developmental, intellectual and other such disabilities.
Being government employees, the teachers at the school have been engaged in various covid-related duties. Teachers fear that all the hard work they had put into every student would amount to nothing since lack of continuous practice may lead to most of them unlearning and forgetting the lessons taught at the school. Meanwhile, school closure across the country has also given rise to another peculiar problem.
Additionally, parents find it very difficult to make their children sit in front of an electronic device and take instructions for hours together. Moreover, the lack of social activities that they are used to has also caused severe mental trauma and anguish among several kids, parents say
