CBSE to allow children with special needs to write board exams with laptops

NEW DELHI: Children with special needs appearing for Classes X and XII Board examination will be able to use computer or laptops to write their exam from this year. The examination committee of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has approved this proposal as per an official order issued by the Board on Tuesday.

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In all, a total of 28.24 lakh candidates have registered for the Board exam, which is 2.1 percentage point increase from that of 2017. Region-wise Delhi has the higher number of candidates. In all 7,356 differently abled candidates have registered for the exams.

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Over 87,000 more candidates have registered for the CBSE Class XII Board exams this year, while the number for Class X has dropped by over 29,000.

Candidates with special needs category (CWSN) will have to submit a certificate issued by a registered medical practitioner or qualified psychological consultant recommending the use of a computer facility while also citing the grounds for the recommendation.

"The use of computer shall be limited to only for typing the answers, for viewing the questions in enlarged font size and for listening to the question items. Concerned candidates shall bring his/ her own computer or laptop duly formatted and the Centre Superintendent (CS) shall allow the candidate only after inspection of the computer by a computer teacher," said the order.

"The computer/ laptop should not have any internet connection in order to maintain the sanctity of the examination. The request for such an arrangement will have to be made in advance by the candidate by sending a communication with required documents to the CS through school," it added.

The board has also approved the provision for a reader in case the student with a disability does not want scribe facility and needs a person to read the question paper.

The Board examinations for both the classes will commence from March 5, 2018, and will continue till April 4 for Class X and April 13 for Class XII. The highest number of candidates registered are from Delhi region with a total number of 2,89,958 and 2,50,736 for classes X and XII respectively. Candidates from across 17,574 schools will appear for the Board exams to be conducted across 4,453 centres.

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