Regularise IERP services: Vinod

Hyderabad: BRS leader B Vinod Kumar on Tuesday demanded the government to regularise Inclusive Education Resource Persons (IERPs) serving as IERPs. Vinod Kumar stated that the IERPs have been providing education to mentally challenged students in the state for the past 20 years. He reminded that efforts were made to regularise them during the previous government’s tenure, but other processes started without including the necessary posts in the regular DSC.

He stated that the process stopped after the Election Code came into force. Since the Congress government is coming up with the Mega DSC, their services should be regularised. Vinod Kumar said that 1,523 posts in the State were being provided for teaching students with mental disabilities. He highlighted that in the past, there were very few students, but now their number has reached 70,000. He suggested that 996 IERPs were teaching them, they should be regularised, and the remaining posts should be filled in DSC.

He stated that because junior and degree lecturers who worked under the contract system had been regularised, there may be no obstacles to regularising them as well. He appealed to the government to consider and regulate them, as teaching education to persons with mental disabilities was not a common practice. The IERPs have been serving for the last few years with poor pay; they have fewer opportunities to compete with regulars in DSC, and many of them are over age; therefore, they should be treated as a special category and be regularised in accordance with the Congress party’s election promise, he added.