KOZHIKODE: Schools are pressing students to obtain mental disability certificates from physicians to achieve cent per cent results in public examinations.
With certificate in hand, the student can write exams with the aid of an interpreter or scribe paving way for a lot of manipulation by the school authorities.
Besides, extra time, 25 per cent grace mark and benefit of avoiding mathematical graphs/drawings, geometrical figures have also been allowed.
A Psychiatrist at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital who was in charge of the Child and Adolescent Clinic for long revealed Deccan Chronicle that parents used to pester for certificate as it was told from school. “The urgency of certificate will arise in 10th standard.
The school authorities’ aim is to get certificate for students weak in studies claiming that they had problems of specific learning disability,” elaborated she.
As many as 1400 students had used interpreter/scribe in the last SSLC examination in Kozhikode district. Majority of them come under learning disability (LD) category which meant there will be no visible deformity but problems such as dyslexia (deficiency in reading), dysgraphia (deficiency in writing) etc.
The resource persons at Inclusive Education for Disabled at Secondary Stage (IEDSS) are being used as interpreters for both SSLC and HSS exams and as they are very few in numbers, the schools, mainly aided ones, usually have a rapport with them and their ‘aid’ was being utilized. In case of scribe, school designates a top scorer of one class junior, to write for the student.
“Government has to scrap giving scribe/interpreter for every mentally retarded (MR) student,” said a psychiatrist at Pariyaram Medical College hospital. He added that even if the student was found not a MR, parents will plead for certificate. In last SSLC exam, a majority of LD students in Vadakara DEO limits had scored A plus in all subjects, surprising many.
Kozhikode DDE Girish Cholayil said that this academic year onwards, a medical board certificate, comprising of a clinical psychologist and psychiatrist was made mandatory in view of allegations of malpractices.
