State allows student to write exam on ipad

We approached the board requesting the officials to grant her special permission to write the paper on her ipad. She can type on the keyboard with her left hand. RASHMI HOSANGADY, Nishka’s mother

MUMBAI: Twenty-year-old Nishka Hosangady has vocal dystonia, a condition where she has trouble speaking and has little strength in her right hand.

However, that is not going to stop Nishka to appear for her Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams as she will write her paper on an ipad.

In a first, the state board has allowed a Class 12 student to write their paper on an ipad. The board has assigned Nishka a scribe who will copy the content from her ipad on to the answer paper.

Nishka’s condition is a result of a genetic mutation, which she got when she was 8 years old.

A student of Arts at Sophia College, Nishka has trouble speaking as her vocal cords have been affected.

Her right hand has also lost strength and she cannot write her paper.

“We approached the board requesting the officials to grant her special permission to write the paper on her ipad. She can type on the keyboard with her left hand,” said her mother Rashmi.

A resident of Sewri, Nishka went to a regular school till she turned 8.

“Slowly her condition started unfolding and it became difficult for her to attend school,” added Rashmi.

She was taken out of school then and her mother homeschooled her for two years.

She passed her Class 10 exam from the National Institute of Open Schooling in 2017 for which she was allowed to use her ipad.

She will write her papers at Lala Lajpatrai College in Mahalaxmi.

Last year, the state board had allowed a student to write the board exams on a computer for the first time.