KARACHI: The 17 students quietly solving their Fine Arts Part II paper at the Government Islamia Arts & Commerce College on M.A. Jinnah Road on Friday were all deaf and mute.

The Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi, has arranged for centres for special students at the college with Govt Degree Boys College (evening) at Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Pakistan Steel Cadet College at Steel Town, Bin Qasim.

For special female students also the centres are Govt Islamia College for Women in Lines Area, Govt Degree Girls College (evening) in Gulistan-i-Jauhar and Pakistan Steel Cadet College at Steel Town.

Meanwhile, blind students or those with some disability or handicap preventing them to write themselves do not appear for these special exams and take the regular exams with the normal students. The only difference is that they are allowed to bring with them a writer, who must be a junior class student, who can be dictated the answers.

“But the deaf and dumb students, who follow a different course and come from special institutions have different exams,” said the principal of Government Islamia Arts & Commerce College, Prof Anis Siddiqui.

The students taking the exams belonged to ABSA School and College for the Deaf, J.S. Academy for the Deaf and Ida Rieu School for the Blind and Deaf. “Our college has remained a centre for the special students for several years now,” said Associate Professor Mazhar Hussain. “One of the reasons for this could be the central location of this college. But the students make their own transport arrangements to reach here. The three centres for the exams are in fact strategically located to cover the entire city,” he said.

The exam was being supervised by a special invigilator, Arif Hussany Ghaury, who teaches at J.S. Academy for the Deaf. Being deaf and mute himself, he communicated with the students in sign language.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2014