The list, which applies to examinees with seven categories of disability, will now be distributed to schools and uploaded on the board’s website
The Maharashtra Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) recently compiled a detailed list of concessions offered to students with disabilities appearing for the SSC examinations.
The ICSE board allows students with certain disabilities to type out their answers on a computer. Pic/Thinkstock
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The list compiled by the state board mentions concessions for students under seven categories of disabilities: visually challenged, hearing and speech impaired, orthopaedically handicapped, spastics and those affected by cerebral palsy, those with learning disabilities (LD) and those suffering from autism.
“The list will be distributed to all state board schools and uploaded on the board’s website soon. Schools are also expected to put up this list on their notice board,” said a state board official. This decision came after many parents complained to the state board that schools were not very co-operative in giving their children the appropriate concessions.
Educationists blamed this on the laid-back attitude of the board because even after the Supreme Court made a series of concessions (see box) available for students with various forms of disabilities, the education boards are still lagging behind in the proper implementation of the same.
“Parents often come to us with their problems as schools don’t give them the appropriate information and even the board’s website is of no help. So we help them with the information and ask them to demand the same from their school,” said Chitra Iyer, from Forum For Autism (FFA).
The state board exempts students with learning disabilities from studying a third language like Hindi or Marathi, and instead, allows them to take up any vocational subject. However, state board students with LD struggle, as all the textbooks for the 30-odd vocational subjects are available only in Marathi.
“They are trying to enable students to study further but disabling them from doing so by not providing them the right study material. My son is struggling with the vocational subject as the notes are available only in Marathi,” said S Sen, father of a student with LD. For the past two years,
Sen has been running from pillar to post to get a translation for all the vocational subjects textbooks, but to no avail. “I have also agreed to find a translator for the board, but they refuse to make any changes,” he added. While both the ICSE and CBSE boards have implemented, and even gone beyond, the concessions laid down by the Supreme Court in 2006, the state board still seems to be struggling to implement even the basic concessions.
The Cambridge board, on the other hand, provides students with the option of choosing between ‘advance’ and ‘core’ subjects. “Students with LD are recommended to opt for core subjects, which are easier to cope with, as compared to advance subjects.
International schools do give the advantage of extra time during exams as well as writers for students with learning disabilities after approval by the Cambridge International Examination (CIE) board, provided they submit the required documents,” said Kavita Aggarwal, principal of D G Khetan International School, Malad.
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