Berhampur: Disability has not deterred the visually and hearing impaired students from the path of success as all 25 students from the two special schools for the blind and deaf here in Odisha’s Ganjam district cleared the annual Class X state board examination this year, officials said Monday.
The result of the high school certificate (HSC) was published Saturday. Twelve students from the Red Cross School for the Blind and 13 hearing-impaired students from the Helen Keller Red Cross School for the Deaf here cleared their HSC exam this year. Both schools have achieved 100 per cent results for the past several years, school officials said.
The Red Cross School for the Blind has achieved 100 per cent results for the last 43 years, said Priya Ranjan Mahakuda, the school’s principal.
Altogether 12 visually-impaired students, including three girls, who appeared for the HSC examination this year, successfully passed the test, said Mahakuda.
Two boys secured B1 grade by scoring above 70 per cent of marks, while 8 other students got B2 grade with 60 to 69 per cent, and two other students achieved C grade (50 -59 per cent), he said.
Since the first batch of students in 1983, the residential school for the visually-impaired students has achieved cent per cent results in the matriculation examination. The teaching staff in the residential school took extra care of the students for their success in the examination, which is why the school achieved 100 per cent results in all the years, said the principal.
He said that the school was established in 1974 to impart school education to visually-impaired children in the state. The school has developed its own infrastructure facilities recently.
In the classroom, students are taught using Braille textbooks. They, however, appeared for the examination through the helper-writer. The blind students dictated the answers to the writer, who was a junior student to them, said Mahakuda.
Most of the students who passed from the school are now working in different organisations, including government sectors across the country, said Nabeen Satapathy, a retired principal of the school.
Jitendra Sahu, the visually impaired student in the school who secured a B1 grade in the examination, wants to pursue Class 12 in college. Similarly, others who passed the HSC also want to pursue higher studies.
Earlier, students admitted to the school faced difficulties due to the non-availability of Braille textbooks. In the last several years, the government has supplied the test books for the students, which are printed in the Braille press, the only press located here.
“We have printed the Braille textbooks for Class X and other classes and supplied them to different institutes free of cost, following the government’s direction,” said Prakash Narayan Rath, manager of the government-run computerised Braille press here.
“Our all 13 students have also cleared their HSC exam this year. The school has achieved 100 per cent results for the last three decades,” said Bauribandhu Nayak, principal of Helen Keller Red Cross School for the deaf.
