Panaji: Beyond the vast syllabus and rigorous training, there are added challenges for people with disabilities (PwD) looking to crack competitive exams like lack of study texts in accessible formats and teachers equipped to their needs. For the first time, the state is set to offer training for PwD adapted to their requirements.The training will be provided free of cost.The State Commission for Persons with Disabilities and Goa University will collaborate to provide sign language interpreters, syllabus in accessible formats, and teachers attuned to special needs. State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities Guruprasad Pawaskar said that the training will begin this week and each batch will receive training for up to a year.“Any PwD will be able to receive the training, if they are a graduate in any stream, as there are posts in govt service available in different departments across cadres A, B, C. The training is to help them crack exams like Goa State Public Service Commission, Goa Staff Selection Commission, or UPSC at the national level. We thought there should be focused efforts in this area,” said Pawaskar.He said in Goa the commission has been able to create sufficient awareness about the reserved jobs available for Divyang. But often the feedback received is that the candidates narrowly missed the mark at the exams.“As you know, there is 4% reservation in govt jobs across all the groups. Very few are able to clear these exams because of the hardships that they face. So we thought we should have focused classes for PwDs. This is being done in association with Goa University’s Manohar Parrikar School of Law and Public Administration. The faculty will be from Goa University. We will ensure that PwDs enroll for these coaching classes from across the state,” said Pawaskar.While the syllabus and academics will be taken care of by faculty at Goa University, Pawaskar said the role of the commission is to ensure that teaching material is converted to accessible format.“More than 22 students have joined the coaching already and we want the batch to be restricted to 35 to 40 for focused training. It is open to all persons with disabilities. Those who cannot attend offline classes can attend online classes. When we get someone with a hearing disability, we will make sure there is a sign language interpreter present during these classes. Visually impaired we will be provided required software. We will ensure all the syllabus is made available in accessible format,” said Pawaskar.
