In a landmark decision, candidates with special needs will be allowed to write their papers with computers in the forthcoming Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) to commence from 5 March, the board has announced.

In a recent notice forwarded to the schools, the board states that students with disabilities will have to be allowed to give their exams using computers. The candidates, however, must have medical records to prove his ground of disability.

“As per the actual need and skills of the students with disabilities duly supported by certificate issued by registered medical practitioners/qualified psychological consultants recommending use of Computer facility for writing the examination citing the ground on which recommendation for use of computer has been made,” the notice circulated by the CBSE reads.

As a precautionary measure to ensure that candidates do not take advantage of the computer or laptop made available to cheat and access the internet, schools have been asked to be cautious.

“Computer/laptop brought by the candidate will not have any internet connection so as to maintain the sanctity of the examination. The candidate shall use the computer/laptop for the purpose for which permission has been taken,” the notification alerts.

Use of computer shall be limited to only for typing answers, for viewing the questions in the enlarged font size, for listening the question items.

The concerned candidate shall bring his / her own computer or laptop duly formatted and the centre superintendent shall allow such candidate after an inspection by the computer teacher and the same teacher may do the monitoring of the use of the computer.

Simultaneously, the board had also earlier published a circular which allowed typeone diabetic students to carry eatables to the examination centre.

Moreover, candidates who have encountered sudden accidents can avail of “ scribes” in cases where the student is unable to write.

The scribes provided by the centre superintendent will be a class lower than the one for which the candidate is taking the examination.

This year about 16 lakh student will be appearing for CBSE class X exam while about 11 lakh student will be appearing for CBSE class XII board exam.