KATHMANDU, MAY 18 -
The government’s failure to provide course books in Braille has hit thousands of visually impaired students studying in different colleges across the country. There are over 1,000 such students in the Capital alone. 

There is no audio version of course books or other study materials for visually impaired students beyond the secondary level. Worse, the authorities are  oblivious to the problems of these students in pursuit of higher studies.

“The college does not give us alternatives for course books. We request friends to read for us or record the text,” said Mina KC and Shree Ghimire, Bachelor level students of Pashupati College and Sanothimi Education College.

Fifty visually impaired students are studying in Sanothimi College, which set up an audio library for blind students three years ago. However, the library went into a shambles due to lack of funds and proper management, said Jagat Krishna Pokhrel, campus chief.

No audio material has also deterred aspiring students to specialise in subjects of their choice. Mahendra Thapa, a Bachelor level student in Ratna Rajya (RR) College, said, “I wanted English as my major subject since my school days. I had to switch to music and political science.”

English is a tough subject and requires serious study. “I couldn’t take English without reading materials in Braille,” he said. Thapa lost his eyesight three years ago. There is not a single book in audio version in our library, he added.

College administration officials attribute this to paucity of budget. “We do not have enough funds to afford educational materials for the visually impaired students who are very few in number compared to other students in the college,” said Gopal Chandra Pokhrel, chief of R.R. College.

Students in other colleges, including Pashupati Multiple College and Mahendra Ratna Education College in Kathmandu Valley, are facing similar problems mainly due to lack of basic infrastructure and course materials for sightless students.

The country’s largest library — Central Library of Tribhuvan University — has also failed to ease the woes of the visually impaired students.

It had brought out a few audio cassettes based on the syllabi for blind students a few years ago. However, this was discontinued after two years due to inadequate budget, according to the TU administration.

 Lekh Nath Poudel, spokesperson for the Education Ministry, admitted the ministry had failed to formulate special programmes to facilitate visually impaired students at the college level.

Posted on: 2010-05-19 07:53

Post Your Comment

Please note that all the fields marked * are mandatory.

* Full Name

* Address

* Email Address

* Comment
[Some of the HTML tags you can use : <b>, <i>, <a>]

* Captcha

Get another CAPTCHA code