Students with Thalassemia to get 20 minutes bonus exam time

After sanctioning time extension provisions to differently-abled students who are hearing impaired, blind, autistic or have learning disabilities, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) has now added students suffering from thalassemia to their list.

Like the differently-abled students, these students too are to get 20 extra minutes in addition to the prescribed 1-hour for their 2014 Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams.

The student will have to
submit a civil surgeon certificate to the board to get extra time during the exams.

Almost 5,000 thalassemia afflicted students in Maharashtra will benefit from this new rule. The state government came up with this resolution on Saturday and forwarded it to the divisional board at Vashi to make the announcement for the affected students. The provision was considered by the government after hearing a special appeal made by Dr Vinky Rughwani from Nagpur, president of Thalassemia Society of Central India.

Laxmikant Pandey, chairman of MSBSHSE, Mumbai division, said, "The decision of provision of extra time in the board exams for this category was taken by the state government. The 20 minutes of extra time will be given in addition to the one hour exam paper and if the exam is three hours long then extra 60 minutes will be given. This provision will benefit many students suffering from thalassemia. The students to benefit from this provision will have to get a civil surgeon certificate."
Speaking to MiD DAY,

Dr Vinky Rughwani from Nagpur said, "There are around 5,000 kids suffering from this disorder in the state according to my knowledge. Vidharba itself has registered 450 kids suffering from thalassemia."

She added, "The kids suffering from this disorder have to undergo blood transfusion four times in a month. They become psychologically and mentally weak when they get Thalassemia. Their haemoglobin is also very low compared to the normal kids. I appealed to the Health Ministry five to six months ago on executing a provision of extra marks to these students as they face lot of difficulty during their schooling as well as during exams. This provision will bring lot of relief to these students." u00a0