16-year-old Haroon Kareem from Kerala's Malappuram has cleared all his Class 10 exams in the state board with A+. As if that was not an achievement enough to celebrate, Mr Haroon is the first visually impaired student in Kerala who has taken the SSLC state boards without the help of a 'scribe' or 'interpreter', and instead taken all his exams on a computer, himself.
And he is thrilled about it.
"I am thrilled ...so excited about my results. I have got A+ in all my exams, without any help from any scribe or anyone. I don't need to be dependent on anyone, with technology available. This is inclusiveness and schools can be regular, inclusive for all of us with this technology. With the software we can take exams like mathematics and anything else," Haroon Kareem told NDTV.
Haroon Kareem is 95% visually impaired and unstoppable. He has his aim clear: "I want to do my B.Tech from Stanford University".
Mr Haroon enjoys reading and keeping himself upto date about technology during his spare time.
"We requested the school for allowing Haroon to take the exams on the computer, without any scribe. The school was fully supportive. Then we petitioned the education minister Prof C Raveendranath and he got us a special order, for our son to write all exams on the computer," Haroon Kareem's father Abdul Kareem told NDTV.
Mr Haroon cleared his SSLC from Government Higher Secondary School, Mankada in Malappuram and as the SSLC results were announced by the Education Minister Prof C Raveendranath on Tuesday, he found a special mention.
"This is the first time that we got a request from a visually impaired student to take exams without the help of a scribe. We were told that he has the required computer proficiency and can take the exams by himself with the software. School authorities as well as our teams did the verifications and scrutiny required before the permission were given. This is a landmark in our history," Shinemon MK, Additional Director, Academic said.
"We are open to more students who would want to come forward and take these exams in this manner. If they want scribe as help, we will provide. If they want to do it by themselves, on the computer, we will allow,” Jeevan Babu, Director of Public Instruction, told NDTV.
