The Ahmedabad Municipal School Board has sent fingerprints of students of primary schools for dermatoglyphics -- multiple intelligence tests. Officials say that the initiative is a step in the right direction in the greater interest of poor students. However, the contract has been given to an influential contractor at a considerably high rate, and this has lent an air of misgiving to the development.
The school board has sent fingerprints of 100 students to Surat-based Brain Mark for the intelligence tests, which will help figure out the students' learning abilities, their preference of subjects as well as their weaknesses. The school board had sent the 100 fingerprints to the company in August and is now awaiting the report.
“The company will counsel the students' parents on the basis of the findings of the test, which will help the students and parents to take a call about their career prospects,” said Lagdhir Desai, administrative officer of the school board.
However, the company's directors are believed to be closely associated with a former school board member. One of the directors of Brain Mark is a friend of former board member, Bharat Kayastha. The school board will pay a hefty Rs2,500 per student for carrying out the test.
The school board passed the resolution to declare payment to the company for carrying out this test for 100 students. However, Desai said that the tests would be carried out on a pilot basis for only 50 students.
When asked about the association of the company director with a former board member, Desai acknowledged that the reference did come from Kayastha, but added that he was unaware about any connection between the two.
The school board also passed a controversial proposal of paying Rs0.75 per copy for getting photocopies of question papers of languages other than Gujarati. The general rate of a photocopy is Rs0.50 per single page. Still the school board paid Rs0.75 per copy for 16,015 copies.
Desai explained that the higher rate was paid as the contractor had the added responsibility of taking the question papers to the examination centre.
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