Maharashtra Board exams: Divyang stickers on answer sheets from this year
Starting this year, students with special needs appearing for Class 10 and 12 board exams in the state will get answer sheets with ‘divyang stickers’.
Starting this year, students with special needs appearing for Class 10 and 12 board exams in the state will get answer sheets with ‘divyang stickers’.
The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education decided to implement the initiative from the February-March 2019 exams.
“The board provides special facilities to divyang students, which includes allotting additional time and offering several vocational subjects. Having a special sticker on answer sheets will help us segregate their papers at the exam centre itself,” said Sharad Khandagale, chairperson, Mumbai divisional board.
The board will issue guidelines to all exam centres across nine divisions informing them about the stickers.
“We will notify all centre in-charges about the new initiative and ask them to ensure divyang students are provided all the help they need during examinations,” added Khandagale.
Teachers said pasting divyang stickers on answer sheets will help improve the speed and accuracy of the evaluation.
“The answer sheets belonging to these students will be evaluated separately, considering the concessions that are offered to them. This will eventually speed up the evaluation process overall,” said Rita K, a suburban school teacher.
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, mandates educational institutes to give concessions to students with special needs within the 21 categories it has identified.
In a government resolution (GR) issued in September 2018, the state education department had notified a specific marking scheme for divyang students.
Apart from Mathematics and Science, all students including those with special needs will have to write 100-mark examinations for all subjects starting in 2019.
