Helpers for pellet-blinded students in exams

The Jammu and Kashmir government has offered helpers to students who have been blinded by pellets or injured in the ongoing unrest to write their annual board exams.

The state Board of School Education (BOSE) issued a formal notification, asking students with injuries or other disabilities to contact them for availing the facility of a helper or amanuensis.

“It is for the information of all the candidates appearing in the ensuing Class X and Class XII examination session annual 2016 (Regular) that a helper or amanuensis will be provided to all those candidates who have been injured and suffered a disability, disenabling them to appear in the ensuing examination. The aid will be provided to them as warranted under the rules,” read the notification, which was published in local dailies.

Interested candidates have been asked to get a medical certificate and other requisite documents to prove their disability from the authorities concerned. Officials said a decision in this regard was taken on the instructions of Education Minister Naeem Akhtar.

A BOSE official said that the minister asked them to make the exams student-friendly and excuse-free to a level that none of those who have been blinded or injured make an excuse to skip the exams on health grounds. The exams are scheduled to commence from mid-November.

However, educationists have reprimanded the move. “This facility is usually for those students who are disabled. Normally, there are one or two students at an examination centre who require helpers. However, this time, the situation is entirely different,” said Professor A G Madhosh, an educationist.

He said the injured students will already be under immense psychological disturbances due to the trauma and appearing for exams will be an additional burden on them.

Cop among 38 injured in clashes

At least 38 people, including a senior police officer, were injured during clashes between protesters and security forces in Soura area on the city outskirts on Wednesday, DHNS reports. Reports said clashes erupted after forces launched a crackdown in the area to arrest the youth allegedly involved in stone pelting.

The residents said that forces barged into the houses and beat the inmates besides ransacking the household goods. A police spokesman said that “miscreants” in large number pelted stones on security forces at Anchar, Soura, resulting in the grievous injuries to superintendent police Hazratbal and 35 other security personnel.