Chennai: Numerous visually impaired students who took the class 10 board examinations broke down after seeing their results on Wednesday, which according to them, were poor due to the poor translation by scribes allotted to them. They say that whoever got scribes specialising in Maths and Science could do well whereas students with scribes specialising in languages, scored low as they could not understand the symbols and diagrams.
“The first preference for scribe allotment was given to classes 11 and 12 students and in the end, class 10 students were allotted scribes, mostly comprising language teachers. More than 50 per cent of the students faced the issue and we could not even find substitutes at the last moment,” said one of the teachers at Little Flower Convent.
Owing to this, the averages of science and maths reduced by a great margin and students who usually scored at least 80 in the subjects in the school, ended up getting 50s and 60s, she added.
“In science, we are taught diagrams on an embossed plane and in maths, there are separate symbols for everything. In the exam, the scribe who is actually a language teacher did not understand anything and ended up wasting time. Though I knew all the questions and we were provided with an extra 60 minutes, I could not answer half of them,” said a visually impaired student, C.D.Akshaya known as a math wizard at her school and who yet ended up with only 62 marks.
A language teacher- scribe said she was frustrated and subjects like science and maths were gibberish to her. “It was not only stressful for the students, but also for us as we are responsible for their marks. Coupled with tricky questions in Maths, it was a nightmare,” she said.
