Transcribed
1-May-2015 from inaccessible source at :
http://socialjustice.nic.in/pdf/expertcomm-guidelines-DDIII29415.pdf
F.No. 34 - 02/2015 –
DD-II
Government of India
Ministry of Social
Justice and Empowerment
Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities
(5th Floor,
Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex, New Delhi)
Dated: 24" April, 2015
OFFICE MEMORANDUM
Subject
: Constitution of an Expert
Committee to look into the issues relating to
implementation of the guidelines for
conducting written examinations for persons with disabilities – holding of 1st
meeting reg.
The undersigned is directed to
forward herewith copy of the minutes of the preliminary discussion of the
Expert Committee held under the chairmanship of Secretary, DEPwD on 13,4,2015
in the Conference Room of the Department, B2, 5th Floor, Paryavaran
Bhawan, CGO Complex, New Delhi to look into the issues relating to
implementation of the guidelines for conducting written examinations for
persons with disabilities.
Sd.
K.V.S.Rao
Director
Tele: 2436 9054
Copy to:
(i) Shri R..Arora, Addl. Secretary,
UPSC, Dholpur House, New Delhi.
(ii) Shri Sanjay Mehrishi, Joint
Secretary, UPSC, Dholpur House, New Delhi.
(iii) Ms. Archana Verma, Joint
Secretary, DOP&T, North Block, New Delhi.
(iv) Shri Chetan Prakash Jain,
Member, Staff Selection Commission, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi.
(v) Dr. Dharmendra Kuniar, Director,
PDDUIPH, New Delhi
(vi) Dr. A.K. Sinha, Director,
AYJNIHH, Mumbai
(vii) Shri T.D. Dhariyal, Consultant, OO CCPD, New Delhi
(viii) Shri Davinder Pal Singh,
Deputy Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource
Development, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi.
(viii) JS & CEO, National Trust,
New Delhi.
(ix) Director, NIVH, Dehradun
(x) Sr. PPS to Secretary (DEPwD),
New Delhi.
(xi) PPS to JS (AKA)
Copy to NIC, Min, of SJ & E, New
Delhi with the request to upload the above minutes on Ministry’s website.
Minutes of the preliminary
discussions of the Expert Committee to review the Guidelines for conducting
Written Examination for PwDs held under the Chairmanship of Secretary, DEPwD on
13.04.2015 at 04:00 PM in the Conference Room, 5th Floor, Paryavaran Bhawan,
New Delhi
1. The List of Participants is at Annexure.
2. Secretary, DEPwD welcomed the
participants and requested Joint Secretary,DEPwD ) to briefly explain the
background of constitution of the expert Committee and the agenda to be
discussed in the meeting.
3. Joint Secretary, DEPwD stated
that on the basis of the recommendations of Chief Commissioner of Persons with
Disabilities, the Ministry had issued detailed guidelines for conducting
examination for Persons with Disabilities on 26th February, 2013. The
guidelines inter-alia include provision for scribe/ reader/ lab assistant,
grant of extra time to the extent of 20 minutes per hour of examination, option
of choosing mode of taking examination in Braille or in computer or in large
print etc.
Recently, UPSC has raised certain
issues relating to practical implementation of the guidelines. UPSC has said
that their comments on the draft guidelines communicated in 2008 were not
considered. UPSC now has raised the issue of allowing private scribes
especially while taking main examinations (other than multiple type question
based examination), practicality of allowing question paper in Braille etc. The
issues raised by UPSC were also discussed in a meeting held with DoPT when
Chairman UPSC was also present. Staff Selection Commission has also raised
similar observations.
In order to look into the practical
implementation issues raised by UPSC, SSC etc. an expert Committee under the
Chairmanship of Secretary, DEPwD has been constituted. UPSC has now brought a
detailed note outlining their observations on implementation of these
guidelines for consideration of the Expert Committee. He further stated that
the Committee was also required to decide the associations / experts to
represent different disability associations namely visual impairment, hearing
impairment and locomotor disabilities in the Expert Committee.
He also brought to the notice of the Committee
to the fact that the Department has received representations requesting
nomination of experts for the cause of other disabilities such as Autism
Spectrum Disorder, Specific Learning Disabilities, and Speech Impairment etc.
4. Secretary DEPwD requested
representative from UPSC to briefly explain the problem being faced by them in
implementing the guidelines.
5. The representatives from UPSC
submitted that they are allowing scribes as per the choice of the candidates
for multiple choice question based examination such as ICS preliminary
examination. However, in case of main examination which is especially of
descriptive type they are allowing only Government scribes through their centre
coordinators.
They stated that the discretion to
the candidates to opt for own scribe / reader
would have an impact on the integrity of the examination process as the
candidate may bring a scribe who is more proficient than him and who could
improve the content of the answers. The Commission has also received
representations alleging malpractices by the Candidates who had been permitted
to have their own scribes.
The Commission was of the view that
no amount of invigilation could effectively obviate such malpractices in a
descriptive type of examination. The representatives from UPSC further stated
that the possibility of aspersions being cast in the public domain about the
performance of such candidates (who is allowed to use his own scribe) even if
the candidate qualified the examination on merit could not be ruled out.
They have further stated that the commission
has no resource to identify the scribes for making panels at the district /
division
/ state level. At present, the scribes are being arranged through the
coordinating supervisors who are nominated by the concerned State Governments.
UPSC was of the view that the Governments scribes are governed by conduct rules
and thereby the chances of malpractice through them is minimised.
6. As regards the issue of doing
away with fixation of any criteria for the scribe, representative of UPSC
stated that there should be certain eligibility criteria like educational
qualification for the scribe so as to preclude the use of scribe who is more
qualified and has the ability to improve the performance of the candidate which
would tantamount to malpractice.
Further, they have stated that at
present the Commission has been arranging for two scribes for each eligible
candidate keeping in view any aspect of emergency and also an option for the
candidate to select one out of the two scribes. Allowing candidates more than
one own scribe / reader may also have impact on integrity of the examination
process since the candidate would tend to bring subject specific specialists as
scribe for different exam papers,
7. With regard to the provisions in
the guidelines allowing the candidates to choose the mode of taking examination
in Braille or on computer or in large print, allowing assistive devices like
talking calculator etc, the representative from UPSC submitted that these rules
not only involve logistical issues but may also have the potential for
representations / complaints/ litigations on the grounds of the alleged
unsatisfactory hardware / printout / recording devices etc.
Providing question paper in Braille or in
Computer in addition to the printed version is likely to have involvement of
multiple agencies and thereby impinge on the confidentiality of question
papers, which in turn could have adverse impact on the examination process.
8. The representative of UPSC drew
the attention of Committee to the order of Honble High Court of judicature at
Bombay dated 19.08.2014 in W.P. No. 5953 of 2014 in the matter of Shri Sujit
Shinde and another Versus UPSC and other.
In this order, the Hon’ble High
Court has taken note of the fact that UPSC has justified its stand of
prescribing its maximum educational qualification which a scribe can possess.
In the preliminary examination which has an objective type test, where the
correct answer from 4 alternatives is required to be marked by shading the
appropriate
circle therefore, a scribe should be able to read Hindi / English versions of
the questions effectively.
Therefore, a scribe of who is of
graduate or undergraduate level can effectively assist the visually challenged
candidate.
9. The representative of UPSC
desired to know as to whether the alternative objective question in lieu of
descriptive questions for hearing impaired person is recommending or mandatory
in nature, JS, DEPwD clarified that all the provisions of the guidelines
including para XV which deals with this aspect are mandatory.
10. The member SSC stated that the
examinations conducted by SSC are mostly based on multiple choice question
papers. They allow only Government scribes through their exam centre
coordinators.
SSC was of the view that allowing
private scribes even for multiple choice answers would have impact on the
integrity of the examination process. SSC was in agreement with the submission
of UPSC relating to other issues such as fixation of criteria for the scribe,
provision
for choice of taking examination in
Braille, allowing assistive devices etc.
11, Shri T. D. Dhariyal, former Dy.
CCPD and present Consultant in the Office of CCPD has intimated that the
process of framing of policy guidelines for conducting examination of PwDs was
initiated in 2001-02 in consultation with Ministry of Human Resource &
Development and DoPT.
As both the agencies did not issue
any guidelines, O/o CCPD took up the issues based on number of representations
received by it. The stakeholders were of the view that there should not be any
criteria such as the qualification of the scribe should be one class below the
minimum required educational qualification for the examination.
After prolonged consultations the
Commission was of the view that no fixed criteria should be there for selection
of scribe and the scribe is to be for all class of PwDs whose writing capacity
or speed is affected. Subsequently the recommendations were sent to the
Ministry for framing of guidelines.
12. Director, IPH submitted that it
would be appropriate if UPSC on their own analyse the scenario taking into
account number of cases where scribes were used, number of PwDs selected using
such scribes, qualification of scribes, number of complaints received against
such
scribes etc. and submit a detailed justification for consideration of
Committee.
13. Representative from Department
of Higher Education submitted that the Ministry of HRD on its own does not have
expertise to comment on the relevant aspects. He suggested that representatives
from UGC, AICTE and CBSE may be co-opted as members so as to make the
deliberations of Committee more meaningful.
14. Director, NIHH suggested that no
criteria for the scribe should be prescribed rather the invigilation process
should
be strengthen to take care of any perceived malpractices during examination
process.
15. After detailed deliberations,
the following decisions were taken
i.
The office of CCPD will submit a detailed documentation
on framing of the guidelines containing the range of issues raised on each
aspects, how the recommendations were finalised etc.
ii.
UPSC will submit detailed justification for seeking
modifications in the guidelines taking into account number of cases where
scribes were used, number of PwDs selected using such scribes, qualification of
scribes, number of complaints received regarding use of such scribes (both
government and private) etc.
iii.
Representatives from UGC, AICTE and CBSE may also be co-opted
as members of the Expert Committee. Department of Higher Education will
expedite the process of nomination of these agencies,
iv.
The following may be nominated to represent various
class of PwDs in the Committee:
Class of Disability
Nominated Member
Visual
Impairment 1
Ms.
Kanchan Pamnani
Visual
Impairment 2
Shri S.K.
Rungta, National Federation of Blind
Hearing
Impairment 1
Mrs.
Snigdha Sarkar, Secretary, ANWESHA
Hearing
Impairment 2
Prof.
Sandhya Limaye, Centre of Disability Studies and Activities, Mumbai
Locomotor
disabilities
Shri Komal
Kabra, Khalsa College, Delhi university
Mental
Impairment
Ms.
Nirmala Srinivasan
16. The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the chair.
ANNEXURE
Minutes
of the Preliminary Discussion of Expert Committee to review the Guidelines for
conducting examination for PwDs held under the Chairmanship of Secretary, DEPwD
on 13.04.2015 at 04:00 PM
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
1. Shri Lov Verma, Secretary, DEPwD
chair
2. Shri Awanish K. Awasthi, Joint
Secretary, DEPwD
8. Ms Archana Verma, Joint
Secretary, DoPT
4. Shri R.K. Arora, Additional
Secretary, UPSC
5. Shri Sanjay Mehrishi, Joint
Secretary, UPSC
6. Shri Chetan Prakash Jain, Member,
SSC
7. Dr. Dharmendra Kumar, Director,
IPH
8. Dr. AK. Sinha, Director, AYJNIHH
9. Shri T.D. Dhariyal, Consultant,
0/0 CCPD
10. Shri Davinder Pal Singh, Deputy
Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource &
Development
11. Shri D.K. Panda, Under
Secretary, DEPwD
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