No calculator for dyslexic student during exams: SC

ICSE permits examinees to use device, says petitioner

The CBSE submitted that such differently abled students were granted an hour extra time than the normal students and a scribe to write the examination to make up the disadvantage to them.

After hearing the arguments, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said: “We are not inclined to allow the student to use the calculator.”Senior advocate J L Gupta, appearing for Pranjay Jain, a student of a school in Panchukula in Haryana, said the student was suffering form mental disability and he might be allowed to use a calculator in his mathematics examination scheduled for March 22.|

Gupta said the ICSE board had been permitting students to use a calculator in the board examinations and the 2007 national policy of the Central government also had provisions for the students with disability to use the calculator.

The CBSE submitted that there were more than 300 dyslexic students all over the country appearing for Class XII examinations this year and there was no such provision to allow them to use a calculator in any paper. The board had earlier turned down the dyslexia-afflicted boy’s application for using a calculator, the Delhi High Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court concurred with the board’s decision.

The Right to Education has been recognised as a Fundamental Right under Article 21 and 21A of the Constitution. The CBSE’s rejection of the request of the petitioner is illegal, unjust, unfair and arbitrary, violating the provisions of the Constitution, Gupta said.
“The world over, such children are allowed to use computers, word processors, voice recognition software and many electronic aids during examinations and for higher studies. Even in India, other school boards, including the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, have issued guidelines permitting the use of scientific calculators by dyslexic students,” the petition said.