In a first, govt college to be set up for specially-abled students

Kolkata: The Mass Education Extension & Library Services department is setting up a college for the specially-abled students, at Habra in North 24 Parganas, so that they can pursue their higher education.

“The college will come up at the vacant land adjacent to the building of Government College of Education(C.T.E.), Banipur, under Habra municipality area. It will be the first government college in the entire country. No other state has a college for the specially-abled,” state minister for mass education extension and library services Siddiqullah Chowdhury said at the state Assembly, on Thursday in response to a query from Trinamool Congress’s Rashbehari MLA Debasish Kumar.

The land that was under the state education department has already been transferred to the Mass Education Extension and Library Services department last month. The state finance department has also given the approval for setting up such a college.

The minister has already written to the state public works department to prepare a plan for the same.

“There will be separate facilities for lodging of boys and girls in the building and specially-abled students from other states will also get a chance to study in the college,” added Chowdhury.

The minister said that experts will be consulted to examine the possibilities of offering technical education in the proposed college.

The department has schools for the specially-abled where they can study till the 12th standard but there was no scope for them to continue studies beyond that.

There are more than 17,000 such students across the state at the school level.