Karnataka: Road accident broke SSLC student’s back, but not his spirit

BENGALURU: For 16-year-old Ruman Shariff, writing the first board exam of his life was anything but easy. He had to write the exams with a lot of pain due to an accident that occurred a month ago.
Ruman, a Class 10 student of MES Kishore Kendra, Malleswaram, met with an accident on February 27 when he was returning home after writing his preparatory exams. He was knocked down by an autorickshaw when he was waiting near the median to cross the road. He was immediately shifted to KC General hospital where doctors said his hip bone is cracked and that he has suffered some injuries in the spinal cord. Ruman is, thus, unable to sit or walk. He had to write his board exams lying down on the floor.

After the incident, his parents approached the authorities of Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB), requesting special permission to allow him to write the exams on the floor. Considering it as a special case on humanitarian grounds, the Board allowed him to write the exams lying down and also provided him with a separate classroom.

Speaking after Friday’s paper, Ruman said, “I have done well and the paper was easy. My only pain is that I could not attempt it on my own.”The board had even allowed Ruman to carry a mattress and also provided 15 extra minutes to write. Though his parents advised him to take help of a scribe earlier on, the boy refused because he was worried about the handwriting. But later, when he realised that he could not sit even for a minute, he decided to go for a scribe. A Class 9 student of the same school is helping him.

Rumours of paper leak marred the Day-1 of the SSLC examinations held across the state on Friday. It also led to suspension of a few people involved in the examination works.Around 11.30 am, a copy of the question paper said to be leaked at Vijayapura started circulating on social media. This triggered panic among the department officials for a while, but the authorities soon confirmed that it was not a case of paper leak. One of the students had sent the paper out of the exam hall through a friend in a bid to get help from outside, they said, putting to rest all the rumours.

V Sumangala, director, Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) said, "The paper was not leaked. The student intended to copy by sending the question paper outside the exam hall. The candidate was immediately identified and debarred from writing the exam. The room invigilator was also suspended." If a paper is available outside before the exam starts, then it can be considered as a leak. In this case, there was hardly half an hour left for the exams to get over when the student went out, accessed the phone and sent the question paper through WhatsApp," Sumangala added.In another case, a route officer at Athani taluk in Belagavi district was suspended as he allowed a student to travel in a vehicle which was transporting the question papers.

All that went wrong  Nine students were debarred for indulging in malpractice during the first language subject exam.At an exam centre in Haveri district, a room invigilator died of heart attack during the exam. 

At some centres, students were forced to write exams in dim light, courtesy power fluctuations. At Malleswaram 13th Cross girls’ PU college, there was no power for one hour.

The associated management of primary and secondary schools in Karnataka alleged that at some of the centres in the city, the invigilators got confused between questions papers for freshers and repeaters. “The department needs to address the issue,” said D Shashikumar, general secretary of the association.