HC allows dyslexia patient to appear in Class 12 exams

Kolkata: The Calcutta high court on Thursday allowed a dyslexia patient to appear for the Class 12 CBSE board examination with subjects mutually agreed upon by him and his school, which had earlier been refused by the institution citing lack of infrastructure.

Justice Tapabrata Chakraborti directed Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ballygunge, to allow Sankalpa Das as a special case to fill up his registration form for the examination with English, Geography, Computer, Painting and Music, as subjects.

The court directed the school and board to allow the student, who is a dyslexia patient, to fill up the form though the last date for the same has passed.

Dyslexia involves difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence.

Counsel for the student’s father Debasish Das had claimed before the court that at the time of admission in class 11, the authorities at the Kendriya Vidyalaya, Ballygunge, allowed Sankalpa to take Home Science, Music, Painting, English and Geography, as subjects.

The school had put a condition that Sankalpa Das would have to study home science and music on his own, his lawyer Subrata Mukhopadhyay said.

However, at the time of filling up registration form for the Class 12 examination, the school raised objection about the subjects chosen by Sankalpa Das.

Sankalpa Das’s father then knocked the doors of the high court.

The court had directed the Central Board of Secondary Education’s lawyer to take instruction from the board as to how the problem can be solved as it was a question of the future of the student.

The lawyer for the school, R.N. Bag, had claimed before the court that the school does not have infrastructure to teach home science and as such it could not allow the student to take that subject.