Government Resolution issued last week announced special provisions for students of SSC and HSC with special needs.
While most Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) students with special needs will be happy that they can avail writers of older age for their board examination, the question which has arisen now is that whether the same facility will be provided to students who are medically unfit during the exams.
According to the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Higher Secondary Education officials, the facility of older writers has been provided to help out younger students of Classes 9 and 11, who used to write the exams for students of Classes 10 and 12, and missed studies for their own final examinations. However, there is a doubt among school and college officials as to whether the facility of writer of older age will be extended to students who come for the exams with fractures or who are not in a state to write and are not bracketed in the special need category.
Thane's St John Baptist High School and Junior College principal Micheal Pinto said, "The GR is very clear that the older age writer is a concession only for children with special needs. But children who come with fracture of body parts may take advantage of this concession and demand such writers for themselves. The board should send some messages on this."
Echoing the sentiments of Pinto, a professor from a well-known college in South Mumbai said, "How do we cross check that the older writer brought in by the student is not a relative? On other hand, students who fall ill before exams will demand older writers to write their exams."
Dr MZ Farooqui, principal of Rizvi college, Bandra, said: "Students who fall ill may also demand for this concession. What is to be done then? This needs to be communicated clearly by the board in black and white."
Nandkumar, principal secretary of School Education and Sports, said, "The older writers are allowed to children with special needs to write their board examination because they are not just finding difficulty in writing but also in communicating things. The students of SSC and HSC, who will come in with unfit health conditions before examinations and are not from the category of children with special needs, will not be allowed older writers but younger writer like earlier."
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