If you are taking an exam, the success very much lies in your own hands. Unless one goes by fate, the performance solely relies on individual’s personal efforts. But this is not the case with visually impaired students or any other disabled student who also take various exams on par with their able-bodied peers. Their success and performance in a test is literally determined in the hands of a scribe who writes on behalf of a blind student as they dictate answers.
Lack of clear guidelines coupled with scant attention among officials in tending to the concerns of the blind students have resulted in pushing their grievances into cold storage for years.
The visually impaired students and their teachers feel that providing scribes from lower classes to pen down their answers in SSC board exams is taking toll on the performance of students. They believe that scribes, from class nine or eight, are failing to comprehend the jargon and some technical terms in Mathematics and Sciences.
“For instance, there is a chapter called Trigonometry in Class X Mathematics, where in you have terms like sine theta and cos theta. Likewise, there are specialised terms and jargon in Physics where a class IX or class VIII student cannot understand them as he would not have heard them before. So the authorities should provide Class X students as scribes,” says Jitender, a Mathematics teacher at a blind school.
It is untenable to provide Class X students as scribes to visually challenged students, says Manmadha Reddy, Director of Government Examinations. “It is fundamentally wrong to provide scribes from same class as there could be possible malpractice. Further, visually challenged students need not worry as their pass mark is 20 marks, much below than that of a normal student, that is 35 marks,” he adds.
However, a Government Order in this regard (GO Ms No- 33 dated 19 March 2001) states “The scribe for the blind should be X standard” to assist the visually challenged student. The onus is on the part of the government to ensure the implementation of the law as mandated by the GO, failing which it has to revoke the law, says Saibaba Goud, chairman of the Devnar Foundation for Blind.
“It is incumbent upon the government to ensure the law is implemented in its fullest form. In fact, many students of ours in previous years who were scoring 90 per cent at our school-level exams have just managed to scrape through the exams owing to poor write-ups of scribes. We had made numerous complaints to the officials earlier in this regard, but none showed any commitment to resolve the issue,” he adds.
When asked about problems with sub-standard scribes, Reddy replies, “Yes, a GO has been issued long back to provide Class X students as scribes. However, one should understand that at same time the normal Class X students also take their exams. So it is impossible to provide them as scribes.
Accordingly, modifications have been made to the regulations present in GO and is being practised as a convention to provide class IX students as scribes. However, we could not bring it out in the form of a fresh GO.”
When asked about Reddy’s contention regarding the non-availability of Class X scribes Saibaba Goud suggests, “Yes, there will be a problem if one has to bring Class X taking SSC exams and this reflects the lack of foresight when the GO was framed. As an alternative solution, they could provide CBSE or ICSE students as scribes as by that time, these students will be done with their exams. But it is amply clear that the students are facing a problem with scribes from lower-classes.”
Further he adds, “What these students want is an opportunity but not sympathy in terms of lowering the pass mark.”