Phidim, January 21:

Academic activities of the visually impaired students at Gadhi Lower Secondary School in Phidim bazaar have been affected due to lack of Braille textbooks.

A dozen of visually impaired students studying in the school attend exams without reading textbooks because there are no Braille textbook in the school, established three years ago.

“What the teachers teach us we don’t know; what haven’t read any textbook but we have to attend the exams and struggle to pass,” a student Pradip Linden said.

“We started classes for visually impaired students as assigned by the government but we have not received any Braille textbook yet,” headmaster Ram Chemjong said, adding that they had informed the District Education Office about the problem but nothing has been done to solve it. Students said there is no good classrooms and the school lacks teaching materials.

“Though the government has been providing an annual scholarship of Rs 10, 000 each to the visually impaired students, the amount is not sufficient,” a teacher Lila Pokhrel said.

“The students’ desire to learn music has not realised due to lack of necessary materials,” he said.

The District Education Officer, Kumari Ambika Shah said the office could not supply the school with the Braille textbooks because they had not received them from the central office.