MAPUSA
For most students, board exams are a test of preparation. For 15-year-old Tarak Gawas of St Rita High School in Colvale, they have become a test of sheer resilience.
With his leg in a plaster cast after an accident, Tarak cannot walk, sit or even remain upright for long. Yet, when his Class 10 board examinations began, giving up a year was not an option.
Instead, he will write his papers lying down on a bed “ thanks to a rare but carefully structured intervention by the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHSE).
At the Colvale examination centre, arrangements have been quietly put in place to accommodate Tarak’s condition. A bed has been set up, ensuring he can attempt his papers in the only position his injury allows.
An escort will assist him to and from the centre, and if needed, a writer will be provided “ every detail designed to ease his discomfort without compromising the sanctity of the examination.
Behind this effort lies a simple but powerful idea: that circumstances beyond a student’s control should not decide their academic future.
GBSHSE Chairman Bhagirath Shetye said the decision was taken “purely in the academic interest of the student” after the school approached the Board.
“Otherwise, it would not have been possible for him to answer the examination,” he said, underlining that such provisions are part of the Board’s framework for exceptional situations.
While Tarak’s case has drawn attention for its sensitivity, officials say it is not entirely unprecedented. Each year, the Board encounters a handful of students facing extraordinary challenges “ medical emergencies, personal tragedies or logistical hurdles “ that threaten to derail an academic year.
In such moments, the system is designed to bend, without breaking.
“There are standard operating procedures in place. If a student cannot write from the designated centre, we identify a suitable place and ensure proper supervision. It is all within protocol,” Shetye explained.
Sometimes, these interventions go beyond logistics and enter the realm of empathy.
Shetye recalled a case where a Class 12 student, devastated by the death of a parent on the eve of an exam, stayed away from the centre.
A conductor, noticing the absence, went to the student’s home, persuaded him to appear, brought the student to the exam hall and later dropped him back.
“That one effort saved the student’s academic year,” he said.
For Tarak, too, this support could make all the difference.
