Minister grants Haroon’s SSLC exam request

Thiruvananthapuram: When Haroon Kareem T K, a blind Class X student of GVHSS Mankada in Malappuram, was writing his SSLC model exams last week, he was informed by school authorities that his application to write exams with the help of a computer was rejected by the director of general education (DGE). The district education officer of Malappuram received a directive that using a computer for SSLC exam is disallowed due to the lack of general guidelines.
Now, just weeks before his SSLC exam, education minister C Raveendranath has paved the way for Haroon to become the first blind student in Kerala to write the state board exam using a computer. Blind students use a combination of advanced software including screen readers and infty editor to listen to questions and answer them using a normal keyboard. Screen readers can then be used to check the answers.
Sources in the minister’s office said when the issue came up, Raveendranath took a proactive stand and approved the request. The GO will be released after a couple of days when DGE Jeevan Babu, who is in Dubai, returns. The delay is unlikely to affect Haroon as the first paper is a practical exam on computer applications on Saturday. Theory exams will begin on March 10, before which Haroon is expected to receive the GO.
Haroon, who was in Thiruvananthapuram to meet the minister and officials, said he was waiting for the special sanction when his friends were revising their lessons. “I have been using a computer to take notes and study for the past several years. It is difficult to communicate science and maths to scribes, who are junior students. For example, terms like sin in maths. I lost marks when the scribe misspelled Hindi words. I was hoping to write the exams using a computer when I learnt that I must choose a scribe or braille during my model exam (maths). That was the only model exam I fared badly,” said Haroon who usually scores 98% in maths.
Guidelines for conducting written exam for persons with benchmark disabilities 2018 states that such persons ‘will be given the option of choosing the mode of exam i.e. in braille or using a computer or in large print or even by recording the answers as examining bodies can easily make use of technology to convert question paper into e-large print, texts or braille’. Though other board exams made necessary changes to use assistive technologies, Kerala hadn’t taken a sensitive approach.
Ram Kamal Manoj, managing trustee of NGO Chakshumati that is engaged in the welfare of blind students, said SCERT often tries to discourage students from take the science stream.
“When students can use assistive technology independently, they are discouraged from using technology. Revised exam guidelines for persons with disabilities is still being processed at the office of DGE. Blind students shift to CBSE at the last minute to write exams using assistive technology. Haroon did not give up and now he is set to become the first students to write SSLC using computers,” he said.