ABHINAV Vidyalaya (Marathi medium) has proved it has what it takes to top the charts in more ways than one.
While it boasts of the highest number of merit students in the SSC exams this year, the Adarsh Shikshan Mandli’s school also provided ‘writers’ from class nine for six students of the Poona school and home for blind girls, Kothrud. And the school recorded an all-pass in the SSC exam, the results of which were announced on Monday.
Distributing pedas, the 12 girls of Standard IX (morning shift) celebrated the success of their ‘exam friends’. ‘‘We feel as if we had taken the exams,’’ say Priyanka Kale and Charita Mule.
The school has been providing ‘writers’ to the blind school for the last 12 years as part of its ‘social service class.’ Teacher Sambhaji Gaike, who handles this activity, says they announce ‘writers’ two months before the exam. ‘‘We select students on the basis of academic performance as well as handwriting.’’
Blind school principal Archana Tapikar is all praise for the school. ‘‘The school has been very co-operative and the students’ initiative despite their own exams is commendable.’’
The ‘writers’ interact with the visually impaired students just two to three days before the exam. They say the responsibility calls for a lot of patience as well as the ability to understand what the student wants to convey. ‘‘We might have to read out the question atleast four to five times and constantly confirm if what we have written is right,’’ says Aditi Joshi, who is a regular ‘writer’.
‘Writers’ Anuprita Petkar, Priyanka Kale and Swarali Sathe say it is important to be careful while solving the paper and also ensuring it’s neat. But Gitanjali Joshi and Amrita Sakhlikar, perhaps, best sum up how the ‘writers’ view their role. ‘‘ We appear for the paper as if it were ours.’’
And in striving to reach out, the ‘writers’ and their exam friends develop a special bond.
Abhinav’s students also visit the blind school during the year to write letters. While Tapikar gives them a token amount, the students return the amount as donations.