The news of permanent tenure didn’t make me happy: Anita Bhattarai (Teacher)

In an interaction organized by the Blind Youth Association of Nepal and Education Journalists Society in Kathmandu on Friday Teachers with disabilities have demanded that they should be given priority in the appointment of permanent teachers. They says that when they arrived at a school that was very poor and had no minimum infrastructure, there was also a problem in teaching.

Sri Madanli Secondary School teacher Shrijan Dhakal complained that they had to go to schools far away and that they faced problems because the schools were not disabled friendly. She demanded that the government should solve it immediately.

Visually impaired teacher of Dhading Peepal Bhanjyang secondary school Anita Bhattrai says “The names of the permanent candidates were selected after studying hard in the competition of the Teachers Service Commission.” “But I could not sleep all night about which district and which place I should go to teach”. “Remembering the pain and suffering after being posted in the school, one wonders how this job is sustainable.’ The news of permanent tenure as a teacher did not turn into happiness for her. Due to the lack of disability-friendly and accessible infrastructure in the school where she is posted and the surrounding area, Anita has to face many problem. Once while going to school with a white stick, she fell on the road and almost fell into the river. Her leg was injured. “When parents and students wondered how a teacher who could not even walk would teach, it caused more mental pain,” she said.

Shankar Upadhya, a visually impaired teacher of Lalitpur’s Model Machindra Secondary School, says that he gets stressed when his name appears in the teacher’s service. Rabin B.K, another visually impaired teacher who was recently recommended for posting at Mahendra Mavi of Shivpuri Rural Municipality of Nuwakot, also complained that he was not heard even when he went to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology with his problem.

Narad Dhamala, officer of the inclusive education branch of the Education and Human Resource Development Center, stated that he is well aware of the problems of teachers with disabilities and expressed the opinion that the problem can be solved only by correcting the criteria for posting. There are currently more than 600 disabled teachers working in public schools.