19-year-old C. Tamil Selvan was apprehensive when he went in to write his Class X maths paper, but despite his fears, he ended up scoring 96. With a total of 480, the visually impaired student of the St. Louis Institute for Deaf and Blind is now aiming for a degree in English or history and then dreams of joining the civil services. He wants everyone who knows a visually impaired child in their neighbourhood to help them get into school.
Students with disabilities have generally fared well. At Little Flower Convent School for the Deaf, G. Thilakavathy was the topper. “She would study until midnight and then, wake up at 3 a.m. and study again,” her mother said. Even when the doors of their house broke during Cyclone Vardah, she kept studying. J. Jayashri, who came second in the deaf school, has only partial vision in her left eye, but studied even through three days of a power cut during the cyclone, her mother said. All the school’s 19 students passed. At the blind school, all the 9 students who wrote the exams passedwith A grades. A. Farida, who her teachers said was a budding singer, topped with 476 and R. Nancy Mary came second with 467. While all the 18 visually impaired students at St. Louis passed, two of the 23 hearing impaired students failed in Tamil, said principal Br. John Xavier.
22 of the 23 students passed at The Dr. MGR Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired, while one failed, also in Tamil. At the CSI School for Deaf, 19 of the 25 students passed. The students found Maths difficult, said James Albert, the principal. All 22 students of the Government Higher Secondary School for the Blind, Poonamallee, and both visually impaired students of Nethrodaya’s school passed.
In Chennai district, 64 children with physical and other disabilities too wrote the exams and 59 passed, as per government figures.
Many of the students thanked their supportive teachers and the efforts they had put in, especially during the final term, for their successes.
