C Shivakumar
Chennai:
After two years of continuous struggle, Miranda Tomkinson can now
dream of writing the UGC National Educational Testing (NET) exams.
University Grants Commission vice chairman Prof H Devaraj said
that he has personally intervened to make provisions to help Miranda get a
Braille question paper.
As soon as the issue came to my notice, I had asked my officials
to convert the question paper to Braille.
“This can’t be done just like that. More than seven lakh people
are writing the exams. We have to take extreme care in this regard and
positively, the candidate will get a Braille paper this Sunday,” Prof H Devaraj
said.
An elated S S Smitha of the Disability Legislation Unit,
South, Vidya Sagar said that she is happy to hear the news.
“I feel UGC should have been
little more responsible to respond this many letters from the Chief
Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Government of India,” she said.
The officials could have even
directed us to someone who can look into this, she said.
Interestingly, even a High Court order on Friday has directed the
UGC to provide Braille question paper to Miranda, said Smitha.
Despite a revised guideline under the Ministry of Social Justice
and Empowerment, Department of Disability Affairs, which states that persons
with disabilities should choose their own mode to write exams, UGC has denied
the candidate Miranda Tomkinson a Braille question paper which he has demanded twice for writing the exams.
Tomkinson possesses Masters in Sociology but was worried that his
qualification could not earn him a job and he has to still depend on his close
relatives for financial aid.
UGC said that the delay in
looking into the issue was due to lack of staff. “Now we have filled the post
of 20 education officers,” said Devaraj vowing to sort out all the pending
issues with UGC.
No comments:
Post a Comment