Speech and hearing impaired barred from writing exam

BENGALURU: About 50 speech and hearing impaired students sat in protest in front of the Department of Industrial Training and Employment department on Monday after they were not allowed to write the examination. The final year students, who arrived in the city from various parts of the state, were to answer their backlog examinations in the morning, but did not receive their hall tickets in time. “We tried the college authorities several times but did not get any response.

We were not given the hall tickets even after paying the examination fees about which we were informed just 15 days ago,” a parent, whose son is pursuing electronics, told TNIE. Parents have been apprehensive about the academic future of their children ever since the institute was demolished to make way for the metro construction at Shivajinagar. Students from the Technical Training Centre for the Deaf, Shivajinagar, were shifted to Ghousia College to maintain continuity in their education.

Hostellers were shifted to another hostel in Electronics City, which was away from the campus in Dairy Circle. Commissioner of Department of Industrial Training and Employment K V Thrilok Chandra said it was the older management that had the access to the department’s portal where students’ attendance, etc was to be uploaded.

The new management’s user ID and password were not updated on the department portal. He said after the parents approached him, the department has taken the initiative to take the user ID and password from the old management and has begun the necessary process. An official from the Technical Training Centre for the Deaf said the problem was with the department’s MMIS portal that did not open due to technical glitches. “We have paid fees for all 43 students,” the official added. He said the students will be given a chance in January to attempt the examination in the same format. “Had we been informed earlier, we would have saved the effort of travelling to Bengaluru, some as far as from Bihar, in this financially burdensome pandemic,” a parent said.sp;