As the students appearing for the year-end exams are busy preparing, students with disabilities have to worry about an additional aspect, finding a suitable scribe adhering to the norms fixed by the government. Parents of these students who were happy about their education would always have to worry about making their wards sit in the exam hall with a suitable scribe to put on paper whatever the student has studied, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
One such parent, H Shanthi, Coimbatore, was concerned about her son H Balaji, aged 22, who could still not complete his diploma even after three years of his course. The problem was finding an appropriate scribe as her son has autism, a developmental disability caused by differences in the brain.
She said, "Autism is completely different from the other disabilities such as the visually impaired or any other physical disability, which demands a scribe with the basic understanding of the student appearing for the exam." Even when they found a scribe as per the norms with an educational qualification not exceeding Class X, they were barely able to find anyone who was able to understand what their son says during the exam, she added.
"Autism is a disorder which makes the child unique in every aspect from understanding to learning to speaking, which makes a new person unfit to sit with the student to converse with him," she added. "Even after procuring admission to a college and seeing my son suffer to complete an education, this is very disheartening," Shanthi added. Another thing she said was about the practical examinations where no scribe was allowed which makes passing the practical exam still harder.
Another parent named Sneha Reddy from Chennai has a child who has difficulties in visual perception and a disorder related to fine motor skills which doesn't allow her child to visualise texts and pictures normally. "The problem with visualising a text requires someone to read the text aloud and then another person to write it on the paper," she added.
When the child's condition demands such things, the norms for the scribes should be relaxed, she added. While she opted for the National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS) for her daughter, considering the practical education syllabus rather than completely theoretical, she said, it was still hard to find a scribe who can understand her during her exam which completely nullifies the efforts she imparted on studying.
Another parent from Salem, who did not wish to be named, said that she was unable to continue her son's education due to the complicated procedures involved in getting admission to college or school. "I was not able to afford to travel from my village to visit schools and disability welfare offices and so discontinuing education was the only option I was left with," she added.
A senior official at the Commissionerate for Welfare of the Differently Abled said, there were certain concessions given for students with different disabilities which they had to approach through their respective institutions. "When they apply, the application, after evaluation by various boards, would be considered for the concession," he added. However, the official did not specify the concessions the students would be availed of, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
