New law gives hope to special kids
Enforce existing rules too, urge parents
Sumitra Deb Roy

PUNAM MEDH (40) struggled for six years to help her son Purab (name changed
on request) overcome dysnomia (dictation disability), as the school he was
studying in refused to acknowledge that he was suffering from a disorder.

Her efforts paid off when her son Purab (name changed on request) passed his
SSC examination with 65 per cent earlier in June.

Medh sees this as a victory against an unsupportive education system and
hopes the new government resolution (GR), which gives concessions to
students with learning disabilities, will spare them the trauma her son had
to face.

As per the GR, students will be allowed to study a lower level of
mathematics and not asked to write lengthy answers; errors in spelling and
grammar will also be ignored. While Medh thinks these concessions will go a
long way in helping students, she says the first step should be for schools
to adopt a better approach with such students.

Purab was in Class 4 when Medh realised that he was suffering from attention
deficient disorder. "He never got his spellings right and scored poorly in
dictations," said Medh. Finally, in Class 7, when Purab failed in almost all
exams and his confidence hit rock bottom, Medh started talking to school
authorities for help. However, the school generalised the problem and
labelled Purab as a "lazy student".

Bharati Patel's son Umesh (14), suffering from dysgraphia (writing
disability), too faced the same problem.

He had repeatedly been refused a writer by the school despite guidelines
that students with dyscalculia and dysgraphia be provided with a writer.
Umesh was compelled to leave the school and seek admission elsewhere.
Admitting that schools often ignore learning disabilities cases, President
of Maharashtra Dyslexia Association Kate Currawala said even if there are
provisions for students with learning disabilities, it is not usually
implemented.

"Schools need to take initiatives so that the disability is identified at
the earliest," said Currawala.

The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) board Chairman Vasant Kalpande said
all efforts were being made to implement all concessions for the special
students.

He also added that students with learning disabilities are already al lowed
to sit for two language papers instead of three.

"From 2007, students with learn ing disabilities would be allowed to use
calculators," said Kalpande.

230 Students with learning disabilities (LDs) took SSC exams in 2006.

103 Students with LDs took HSC exams in 2006 " Dyslexic kids should be
encouraged to participate in other activities.

I enrolled my son in the school band. This helped him gain " confidence".



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