Visakhapatnam: Dearth of scribes, disabled suffer

Visakhapatnam: While the CBSE is amending the examination bye-laws for differently-abled candidates related to qualification of a scribe or various exemptions time to time as per the need, the state education department is least bothered about it, much to the dismay of the special students. The situation is no different for the competitive examination for various state government posts.

Special students can take help of scribes in the examination. However, as per the rule, the scribe should be lesser qualified than the candidates or should not have obtained his/her qualifications in the same subject in which the candidate would be appearing for the examination. As per the existing rule, the scribe has to be lesser qualified. For instance, for a candidate of Class X, the scribe should be of Class IX or below it and graduation examination, the scribe has to be intermediate-qualified only. However, taking the recommendations of the Examination Committee and incorporating the Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016, CBSE has lifted the restrictions on education qualification, marks scored or age of the scribe, reader, lab assistant or adult prompter who will be assisting the special children.

Sai Padma who is a polio survivor with 70 percent disability and founder Global Aid working for the welfare of physically-challenged persons said the rules or laws should be reformed both at centre and state level at regular interval to ensure better accessibility for the differently able students. “I underwent a spinal cord surgery so my writing speed has drastically slowed down. But, I opted for extra time instead of a scribe in my LLB examination as the scribe has to be only intermediate qualified and how can he or she understand the terminology of law subject. When CBSE has changed the rules, the state should incorporate the same without delay,” said the Global Aid founder resenting the slow pace in the reformation in the examination rules for physically-challenged.