Hyderabad: Visually challenged student K. Jaakar’s ambition to become a teacher was shattered during Sunday’s TET thanks to the insensitivity of the Telangana government.
Jaakar, an MA in English literature from the English and Foreign Languages University and the son of a visually challenged government schoolteacher, had attempted 110 of the 150 questions in 2.5 hours.
He had ticked answers on his question paper but had not filled the bubbles on OMR sheet. He thought he would get extra time to finish his exam as the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE) guidelines prescribes extra time to visually challenged candidates.
However, Jaakar’s blank OMR sheet was snatched from him by the invigilator before he could fill even a single bubble. He alleges that his invigilator at Indira Priyadarshini Government Degree College for Women, Nampally bullied him.
As per MSJE guidelines released in 2013, visually challenged students should get extra 20 minutes per hour. The guidelines are followed in major competitive examinations like UPSC, UGC, NET and even in TET exams of states like Tamil Nadu, but not in Telangana for any exam, including TET and TSPSC.
Jaakar says, “I begged the invigilator to at least give me five minutes so that the bubbles on my OMR sheet could be filled for questions which I had attempted. I tried to hide my OMR sheet under the desk; argued about the ministry’s guidelines. But he rudely said that he did not have any instruction for giving extra time and snatched away my answer sheet. He even gave me his phone number and name and told me that if I wanted I can complain against him to whomsoever I wanted.”
Jaakar’s father K. Gnananand says, “Being visually challenged did not stop my son from studying hard and getting into Eflu, traveling alone in the city by bus, or applying for TET. Could the government not be sensitive enough to give some extra time? It is logical as it takes more time while answering an exam through a scribe.”
When contacted, Mr S. Jagannath Reddy, director of SCERT, which conducts TET, said, “Extra time is given only given for descriptive exams, and not for objective exams in Telangana.” He did not have statewide figures of how many visually challenged students had appeared for TET.
