Denied by IIT JEE, Blind Topper Kartik Sawhney Opts for Stanford
How blind is India's education system? While some top officials at
CBSE and IIT JEE committee mull over this question, a brilliant, hard
working and smart student has decided that it's better to take his
talents abroad where they will be fully appreciated rather than waste
his energy trying to fight the system in India. And oh, did we forget to
mention. The student in question happens to be visually impaired.
Meet 18 year old Kartik Sawhney. His father owns a store in Lajpat Nagar, his mother's a homemaker and he has a twin sister and an elder brother.After acing his class XII CBSE exams with a 95% pass percentage, that too in the stream considered challenging by many i.e. Science with Computer Science, Delhi boy is all set to attend Stanford University to study computer science. He would have preferred to complete his education in India in the prestigious IITs, but depressing guidelines of IIT JEE denied him a chance to appear for the exam, because he is vision impaired.
Kartik, who is completely blind had to wage his first war against CBSE before being allowed to study science in class XI. The CBSE was not convinced Kartik would be able to handle the 'visual inputs' — graphs, diagrams, models — required for science. He had to write more than two dozen letters to the CBSE and its controller of exams, had an NGO campaign and his school negotiate for him before he was allowed to opt for science in class XI.
"It was very difficult to convince the authorities to let me study science," says Kartik, the son of a car-accessories store owner. Once he finally got to study science, his school — Delhi Public School, R K Puram — found ways to help him. "For practicals, the teacher explained the apparatus and in the test, I got multiple choice questions based on the practical curriculum," he told the Times of India.
"After class VIII, most blind were exempted from studying maths and science. They would be offered subjects like music," George Abraham, CEO of Delhi's Score Foundation, told TOI. But Kartik stuck to his guns and decided to pursue the subjects of his choice-Science and Computers. And for anyone who had doubts about his abilities, his results spoke louder than words. Sawhney scored 99 in computer science and 95 each in mathematics, English, physics and chemistry. He scored 479 out of 500.
But he hit a roadblock when it came to IIT JEE.
Meet 18 year old Kartik Sawhney. His father owns a store in Lajpat Nagar, his mother's a homemaker and he has a twin sister and an elder brother.After acing his class XII CBSE exams with a 95% pass percentage, that too in the stream considered challenging by many i.e. Science with Computer Science, Delhi boy is all set to attend Stanford University to study computer science. He would have preferred to complete his education in India in the prestigious IITs, but depressing guidelines of IIT JEE denied him a chance to appear for the exam, because he is vision impaired.
Kartik, who is completely blind had to wage his first war against CBSE before being allowed to study science in class XI. The CBSE was not convinced Kartik would be able to handle the 'visual inputs' — graphs, diagrams, models — required for science. He had to write more than two dozen letters to the CBSE and its controller of exams, had an NGO campaign and his school negotiate for him before he was allowed to opt for science in class XI.
"It was very difficult to convince the authorities to let me study science," says Kartik, the son of a car-accessories store owner. Once he finally got to study science, his school — Delhi Public School, R K Puram — found ways to help him. "For practicals, the teacher explained the apparatus and in the test, I got multiple choice questions based on the practical curriculum," he told the Times of India.
"After class VIII, most blind were exempted from studying maths and science. They would be offered subjects like music," George Abraham, CEO of Delhi's Score Foundation, told TOI. But Kartik stuck to his guns and decided to pursue the subjects of his choice-Science and Computers. And for anyone who had doubts about his abilities, his results spoke louder than words. Sawhney scored 99 in computer science and 95 each in mathematics, English, physics and chemistry. He scored 479 out of 500.
But he hit a roadblock when it came to IIT JEE.
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