E-Paper
Specially abled children narrate challenges of online education
Online education has had its own set of challenges for teachers and students in the last one year
Online education has had its own set of challenges for teachers and students in the last one year. However, for special students who have hearing, visual and learning disabilities, these challenges have been multi-fold.
Teachers struggled to clarify concepts for special students through the virtual medium.
Maharashtra has 8,196 special students appearing for the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and 6,087 special students appearing for the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) scheduled from April end.
Pune division alone has registered 859 students in HSC and 1,074 students in SSC as per the state board.
Athang Bhandare, a visually challenged student of class 12 Arts said that as the entire academic year was online, the exams should be too.
“Online examination would be better. Even though I am in Pune, I live far away from my college; going there itself is a challenge. There is a problem of transport and the fear of Covid-19. My parents also are scared about how I will give the paper. I also feel that the paper should be online with multiple choice questions (MCQ),” said Bhandare.
He added that getting a writer is important in offline and online mode.
“Not all software supports a talk back. So, there is a need for a writer. In my case, my sister is writing for me but for my other friends who are living in Latur and Hingoli, they have to get a writer who is in Pune. They haven’t found writers,” said Bhandare.
Meera Badve, director of Nivant Andh Mukta Vikasayala said that students have struggled a lot to get a hang of difficult concepts this year.
“It is difficult to teach various concepts to special children. For example, special students with visual disabilities, how can we explain the concept of planes in Mathematics or finance in commerce? All of this we have done at offline classes so far, and in the last one year, there was no option for these students to learn everything online. There were challenges, and now the syllabus is almost finished but there is less time for the child to revise,” said Badve.
She added that final exams should be taken online to make things easier for the students.
“There should be question banks and the students should get multiple choice questions to make the paper easier. Many students with special needs are living in rural parts. If the exams are offline, how are these students going to manage to come and give the exam in the city?” questioned Badve.
She added that as the hostels are shut and the hostel mess are also shut, where will the students stay to give the offline examination?
“There is also the question of writers. How can the schools and college arrange for writers during the pandemic?” said Badve.
Medha Kulkarni, managing trustee of NGO Make My Dream Foundation who works with students of hearing disability said that students with hearing problems have suffered more.
“These students, unlike visually challenged students, cannot listen and learn. Teachers have struggled to reach them. Many parents are still confused if the students have understood the concepts or not. In such a scenario, how can the offline examination help these students,” said Kulkarni.
Prakash Mali, a class 10 student who is visually challenged said that he is preparing his best for the upcoming examination.
“Online learning has its own challenges, and it took us a few weeks to get accustomed to it. Now, that exams are here, for online or offline, we will need writers. As some software don’t support screen readers. So, in that case, we will need a writer to help us. The pandemic is a difficult situation, let’s see how things go for offline exams,” said Mali.
