Tamil Nadu govt issues exam guidelines for differently-abled candidates

The guidelines named 'Tamil Nadu Guidelines for conducting examinations for Persons with Disabilities 2021' will be applicable for all the examinations concerned to academic, recruitment, and other purposes conducted by the State government.

Under the new guidelines, the differently-abled candidates can choose their scribes and the candidates should be allowed to meet the scribes two days in advance so that the candidates get a chance to check and verify whether the scribe would be suitable or not. Changes in scribes in case of emergency would also be permitted.

The candidates are also allowed to make more than one scribe for writing different papers especially for languages but only one scribe is allowed for one paper. In case, the person with disabilities is allowed to take the examination on a computer, they should be allowed to check the computer one day in advance so that the problems in case of any would be rectified. However, the use of own computers will not be allowed for the examination.

The existing practice of extra time or additional time, given for differently-abled persons who do not avail the facility of scribes, should be changed to compensatory time and the time should not be less than 20 mins per hour of examination.

The competent authority conducting an exam should create a pool of scribes to enable differently-abled persons to choose from the pool. The scribes should be allowed to read back the answers at the request of the candidates and to alter or delete the answers at the request of the candidates.