KARACHI: In a first, visually-impaired students sitting for the Board of Intermediation Education Karachi (BEIK) examination will give their paper using the braille system.

They will also be allotted 30 extra minutes to finish the paper as the BIEK tries to facilitate students with special needs.

Board of Intermediate Education Karachi Chairperson Professor Saeeduddin told Aaj News that they are first education board in the country to take such a step.

Braille is a system of touch reading and writing for blind people in which raised dots represent the letters of the alphabet. It also contains equivalents for punctuation marks and provides symbols to show letter groupings, according to Braille Works, an organisation that provides reading materials for people who are blind, visually impaired or reading impaired.

Previously, the visually-impaired students would hire people to write down the answers of the exam paper. The going rate for such writers is between Rs3,000 to Rs4,000. “But the writers would made mistakes that affected the grades of the students,” said the chairperson.

The exams start on June 18 and will be held at the IDA Rieu School for the Deaf and Blind in Karachi.

Ida Rieu School for the Deaf and Blind is among many educational institutions run by the Ida Rieu Welfare Association. It was founded in 1922 with two students. Now it has emerged as the country’s leading school for the people with disabilities. Currently, it has over 900 students.

Ida Rieu had advocated the use of braille for examination. The intermediate board introduced a pilot version of the project under which braille was used for papers of major subjects. This was at the time when Covid-19 restrictions were in place.

Following the assessment from the pilot, the school for special students requested the board to allot extra time to students for examinations as they require more time for typing. It was approved by the board of governors of the BIEK.

“For the first time in the history, visually-impaired students will be allotted 30 extra minutes to complete their papers,” said the BIEK head.

Visually impaired people in Pakistan work on important positions with Saima Saleem, the country’s first blind diplomat, representing Pakistan at the United Nations.