How many people know students with disabilities are entitled to an extra 20 minutes per hour of the duration of exams? H. Anitha’s invigilators didn’t. Completing the Class 10 final exam in the stipulated time limit proved to be a daunting task for the Davangere student with partial vision. Subsequently, she failed and now awaits another turn to clear the exam.
Listening to her case during a public hearing on child rights violations, organised by the Samajika Parivartana Janandolana here Friday, State Commissioner for Disabilities K.V. Rajanna advised the Education Department to create awareness about the provisions for persons with disabilities.
New format
To do this, from this academic year, admission tickets in all educational institutions — government and private, primary, secondary and institutions of higher learning — will have a new format.
According to a recent decision, along with general instructions for regular students, the rules applicable for students with disabilities will also have to be included in the hall tickets. Among these are the additional time that such students enjoy and the right to have a scribe (in case of students with cerebral palsy, for instance). The primary intention is to educate the invigilators about the rights, Mr. Rajanna said.
Green stickers
Further, he said, directions have been issued to ensure that the answer scripts of students with disabilities have a green sticker. “This will ensure that the evaluators will show some consideration while correcting the papers.”
Speaking about the lack of special instructors for students with disabilities in educational institutions, Nandini, programme officer of the NGO Action aid, said the concept of inclusive education was only on paper. “The issue of accessibility is limited to providing ramps,” she said.
Mr. Rajanna said a major change was expected in this regard, as short and long-term measures were in the offing.
Training
“Special educators cannot be posted everywhere as it is not necessary that there are students with disabilities in every school or college. But a change may be made in the training and syllabus of teacher training programmes such as B.Ed. and D.Ed. to include teaching for students with disabilities,” he said.
