Pandemic has not dampened spirit of differently-abled DU students to excel and learn

New Delhi: While students around the world are finding it tough to cope with the pandemic situation, Delhi University (DU) finds that these problems have not dampened the spirit of the differently-abled students to excel and learn.

Pointing out that 734 differently-abled students appeared in the Open Book Examinations (OBE) this year, DU Dean of Examination, D.S. Rawat said that the morale of the differently-abled students has not diminished, despite the fact that the university is not functioning on a regular basis due to Covid.

According to the Dean Examination, visually impaired students were given the choice to have their own writer for writing the examination. More alternative options were made available to all differently-abled students as compared to the general students.

While the general students have to upload their answer sheets on the university portal, the differently-abled students were given the option to upload their answer sheets or send them by email. In addition, extra time was also given to such students.

However, the positive news is that most of the students with disabilities uploaded their answer sheets on the DU portal just like general students.

Nearly 3,000 answer sheets were submitted by the differently-abled students despite having alternative options and only 200 answer sheets were sent by email and most of them were able to upload.

According to DU, the performance of differently-abled students in the OBE examinations has been excellent and almost all students passed the examinations.

Meanwhile, Delhi University (DU) has taken a key decision to provide some relief to the differently-abled students in the institute so that they can continue their studies and can appear for the varsity examinations.The university plans to set up facilities like tactile flooring, ramp, lift, braille signs, braille printers, etc in nearly a dozen DU colleges for the benefit of differently-abled students.

These include Hansraj College, Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, Mata Sundri College for Women, Miranda House, Department of Social Work, Faculty of Social Science, Lakshmibai College, Shri Ram College of Commerce, IP College, Lady Shri Ram College, Rajdhani College and Satyawati College.