Test for teachers: When the ‘helping hand’ fails you

Visually-impaired candidates demand a re-test with better arrangements.

ISLAMABAD: The battle was already half lost when these visually impaired persons were assigned “incapable” helping hands to assist them in their exams.

The students, who have not been gifted with the ability to see, were let down by the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) at the recently conducted test, which was for the recruitment of lecturers in various fields.

A group of candidates, who were denied extra time in the test, said they were not told when the commission appointed the ‘helping writers’, which affected their performance. “The helping writers provided by the commission were not able to cope with the situation,” said a candidate.

“Usually these helping writers are appointed with the mutual coordination between the commission and the candidates. Some extra time is also allowed for the visually impaired persons because solving the paper with the help of a helper is more time consuming for us,” he added.

Shabbir Ahmed, one of the group members, said, “All standard procedures were ignored by the commission.”

Helping writer reads out the question and the candidate dictates him the answer. This helping writer is usually a junior student and he must be able to read the question properly and correctly write the answer dictated by the candidate. His mistake or carelessness may fail the candidate in the exams.

A candidate said that the situation turned worse on October 3, in the test for English lectureship, when the helping writers ‘gifted’ by the commission were not able to read out a single sentence properly. Most of the helping writers did not even know how to pronounce English words, he said.

Jawad, a test taker, said, “The visually-impaired candidates were at the mercy of these helping writers but the commission did not take this into account.”

“Listening to the broken sentences and trying to make sense of words out of totally wrong pronunciation and then dictating the right answer along with the spellings made it impossible to give a proper exam,” said another candidate.

They demanded reforms in the exam system for the visually-impaired people.

Candidates must be allowed to bring their own helping writers, another said. The government can verify the helpers if it wants, he added.

The candidates said they want another test to be arranged so that they get a fair shot at the teaching posts.

Ahmad said that the current policy of the commission is totally opposed to the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Pakistan ratified in May 2011.

Secretary of the commission could not be approached despite numerous attempts. However, a member of the commission said he did not know about the change in the policy.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2011.