BHUBANESWAR: Even as the state government is gearing up to implement the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 at the higher education level, it is yet to factor in issues related to blind students in colleges and public universities.
Unlike their general counterparts who have access to books related to their curriculum, the state does not provide Braille books to blind students pursuing graduation, MA, BEd or PhD. Visually-challenged students said despite several appeals to the state government, it is yet to take any measures to provide them with their course-related books in Braille format, which is their only access to pursuing higher education.
Currently, the state government provides Braille books to students till the Plus II (higher secondary) level. “As an alternative arrangement, we download study materials related to our course curriculum from platforms like IGNOU, Odisha State Open University and e-PG Pathsala on our laptops and use KURZWEIL software to convert them into audio notes for hearing,” said Ranjan Nayak, a blind PG student of Ravenshaw University.
The laptops, though, are provided to the students by the SSEPD department free of cost. “But finding PDFs of all relevant books, chapters, topics of all subjects online is itself an arduous and time-consuming process for us. Then, one has to convert them into audio notes. Braille books would have been an advantage but it is surprising that the Higher Education department has not thought about it yet,” said Pratiksha Behera, another student.
In Odisha, blind students are mostly into arts stream. While admissions to science stream is next to nil or negligible, there are a handful number of blind students in the commerce stream. The Higher Education department has no data on how many blind students are pursuing BA or MA and beyond.
Instead, it includes them under the PwDs category and as per it, in the current 2024-25 academic session, 1,180 PwD students took admission to UG courses, 262 in PG courses and 135 in BEd courses. Since 2022-23 academic year, a total 4,129 PwD students have taken admission to either UG, PG or BEd, as per the department’s SAMS.
However, as per blind students’ unions of various public universities, Ravenshaw University has the highest number of blind students at 200 while their number is close to 60 in Rama Devi University. Ravenshaw is the only university having a Braille printing facility on the campus.
While there is one Braille printing press in the state at Berhampur, the facility only prints books for blind students till the Plus II level apart from the regular calendars.
While Higher Education minister Suryabanshi Suraj could not be contacted for his comments on the issue, social activists said since there are a considerable number of blind students in colleges and universities now, the NEP implementation may look into provision of Braille books and availability of audio books for them on the department website.
“Visual impairment is the first roadblock for blind students in pursuing higher education and lack of Braille books only makes things more difficult for them despite their right to education,” said Sarat Das, a member of Odisha Association for the Blind.