Pune: “The key to life is accepting challenges. Once someone stops doing this, he’s dead.” -- Bette Davis.
Accepting the challenges, the specially-abled children yet again have given a remarkable performance in the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) Standard Xth exams, the results of which were declared on Tuesday. When normal people crib over little things, these students have shown exemplary courage to win despite the challenges.
Abhinav Sarkar of GG International School scored 85 per cent in Std X board exams inspite of his fight with epilepsy, a neurological disorder; dyslexia and dysgraphia, difficulty in reading and writing; and dyscalculia, difficulty in calculations. Abhinav had opted out of mathematics and chose information technology (IT). He chose business studies over social studies, which includes extensive reading and writing procedure. He scored 97 marks out of 100 in business studies, which interestingly does not have an internal assessment from this year.
“Apparently, Abhinav never had many friends and often faced social isolation because of his disorder. When he was young, he would wake up in the middle of night screaming that he does not want to go to school. He avoided participating in school activities as well,” said Abira Sarkar, Abhinav’s mother.
As he had limited friends, he started befriending animals. However, slowly, with the help of teachers, we could help him cope with his condition. We have always told him that marks don’t matter but good behaviour and values will help him throughout his life. He wants to become a wildlife photographer,” said Abira Sarkar, Abhinav’s mother.
Despite a right shoulder lymphoveneous malformation (congenital defect), Kashish Gupta, a right hand writer, scored 95.6 per cent in her boards. “First episode of vein burst occurred last year, when I got a surgery done. The second vein burst occurred immediately after prelims, around a couple of weeks before board exams. Therefore, the doctor suggested surgery only after my boards. Due to internal bleeding, my shoulder would swell up and because of this, it would get stiff. I couldn’t move my right hand for at least 7-8 days. So I was under pain killers throughout my board exams, which made me feel little dizzy,” said Gupta from Delhi Public School (DPS).
Even though the Board had agreed to provide a writer, Gupta refused to take one and decided to go ahead by herself. “The centre had arranged for a lower desk at a medical room,” said Gupta. Her condition never stopped her from dreaming big. A bharatnatayam dancer and an artiste, Gupta wants to pursue her career in design.
For Aryan Awasthi from Orchid School, the journey was no less than a struggle to come out on top. Aryan, who has Asperger’s syndrome, which is a developmental disorder, scored 73.6 per cent. “Aryan faced problem in judging questions, he was fine with writing but reading was difficult. I was shattered when his previous school said that he will not be able to give boards because of his condition. They were never supportive towards him. I had to somehow look for ways to provide him better schooling and a friendly environment to boost his confidence. In Class VII, we shifted him to Orchid School,” said mother Apurva Awasthi.
“Before joining the present school, we knocked on many doors but in vain. We realised many schools are not even aware about special provisions provided by CBSE for specially-abled children. Nevertheless, even the society is still reluctant to accept such children. Amidst all this, it is a battle to keep up the confidence of our children and ourselves,” said Apurva.
