SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has 20,916 Children with Special Needs (CwSN) enrolled across schools, while 1,772 schools have a dedicated special educator, according to UDISE+ 2025-26 data tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
The figures indicate that dedicated special educators are available in only a portion of schools enrolling children with special needs, with the Union Territory accounting for 1,772 schools with dedicated educators against 20,916 enrolled CwSN.
At the national level, 22.11 lakh CwSN are enrolled across all school managements, while 1,16,695 schools have a dedicated special educator, the Ministry of Education said.
Ladakh has 638 CwSN enrolled and 24 schools with a dedicated special educator.
The Ministry said recruitment and service matters relating to teachers, including special educators, fall within the domain of respective State Governments and UT administrations, as education is on the Concurrent List of the Constitution.
Under the Samagra Shiksha framework, special educators can be deployed at block or cluster level and work in an itinerant mode, covering groups of schools where CwSN are enrolled.
The Centre provides financial assistance under Samagra Shiksha and the PM SHRI scheme for strengthening inclusive education and maintaining appropriate pupil-teacher ratios. The framework also provides for two resource persons for CwSN at each Block Resource Centre.
The Ministry has prescribed a pupil-teacher ratio of one special educator for every 10 CwSN at primary level and one for every 15 CwSN at upper-primary level in general schools, under a notification issued in September 2022.
The Government said it is also supporting continuous professional development, in-service training and awareness programmes for teachers and special educators. NCERT has developed online training modules under NISHTHA to help teachers address diverse learning needs, while NCERT and CBSE have prepared handbooks on inclusive education.
The National Council for Teacher Education has incorporated two dedicated credits on inclusive education for CwSN in the Four-Year Integrated Teacher Education Programme.
The Rehabilitation Council of India, meanwhile, has approved 1,081 institutions and universities to offer courses in disability rehabilitation and special education, the Ministry said.
