THE EDUCATOR
Winter 1999
International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED BY VISUALLY HANDICAPPED NIGERIAN

CANDIDATES IN SCHOOL AND PUBLIC EXAMINATIONS AND SOME

STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME THEM

Kathryn E. Hill, G.M.C.H, GINDIRI

Abstract

Problems encountered by visually handicapped Nigerian candidates in school and public examinations are described and the implications discussed. Recommendations are made about strategies to avoid or minimize these problems in the future.

Introduction

As Hill (1991) pointed out, assessment is an integral part of the education system. It includes internal (school) and external (public) examinations and continuous assessment. Continuous assessment includes both assignments and tests. Assignments, tests and examinations can be practical or theoretical. The 6-3-3-4 system includes both written and practical assignments, tests and examinations. For an assessment system to be valid it has to be fair (and seem to be fair) to all candidates.

Handicapped students, if they are to have the adequate education promised them in the New National Policy (1977), have to be assessed in ways which neither advantage nor disadvantage them vis -`a - vis their non-handicapped peers.

With this in mind, the particular problems that visually handicapped Nigerian examination candidates currently encounter are detailed and discussed. Recommendations for improving the fairness of assessment procedures for such candidates are then made.

Who Are the Visually Handicapped?

Eniola (1993) defines the term "visually handicapped" as comprising the totally blind, those with low vision and the partially sighted. He further defines the blind as having a "visual acuity of 20/200 or less in the better eye even with correction," the partially sighted as having a visual acuity of 20/70 and those with low vision as having a visual acuity between these two points (P30). Some blind people are totally blind, some can tell light from dark, while others have a little residual vision which can aid their mobility. Blind people are unable to use print. Those with low vision will probably need large or giant print and/or powerful low vision aids.

The partially sighted range from those who need large print and/or low vision aids to those who can read ordinary print, although they may have to hold it close to their eye or eyes. Others have reduced visual fields. All visually handicapped people with any vision may be photophobic, while some partially sighted or low vision people may need high light intensity in order to use their vision effectively.

The group under consideration are thus by no means uniform in their visual acuity or the conditions that favor them.

The British "School Curriculum and Assessment Authority" in their undated but recent review of "Special Education Needs and Examination at 16" state that:

"The purpose of providing special arrangements during assessment is to enable pupils to demonstrate their attainment where a disadvantage would otherwise be apparent because of the nature of the assessment techniques employed. When applied, special arrangements should not advantage or disadvantage particular people. The arrangements should not reduce the reliability or validity of the assessment."

They go on to list examples of special arrangements, which include "the provision of braille/modified or enlarged papers," before stating:

"This list is not exhaustive. Other arrangements might be deemed necessary, but will need to be discussed and negotiated ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS with the appropriate examining body (emphasis added)." Sadly, such flexibility is absent from the Nigerian system.

Problems

The problems encountered by visually handicapped Nigerian candidates in school and public examinations can be divided into three main categories. These are:

1. Problems in presentation of the paper
2. Problems in writing the examination
3. Problems with results

1. Problems in Presentation of the Paper

For ideal exam conditions, visually handicapped students need the exam paper in a form that they can read for themselves. This means braille for the braille readers, ordinary print for those who can use it and large or giant print for those who need it.

Examination Boards, such as W.A.E.C, J.A.M.B, N.T.I, N.B.E.M have a good record in brailling examinations for blind candidates, and a number of state Ministries of Education and secondary and tertiary institutions integrating blind candidates also do well here. The partially sighted candidates who can use ordinary print (with or without a low vision aid) usually have no problem, but few of those who need large print are provided with large print question papers. Plateau State M.O.E and Boys' Secondary School Gindiri are the two exceptions to the rule known to the author (who would welcome news of others!). W.A.E.C on the other hand categorically refused a similar request; stating that the candidates in question should learn braille (a suggestion that is both psychologically and educationally unsound!)
(Hill and Shown 1995).

However, even where an Examination Board aims to provide brailled question papers, they may not actually reach all blind candidates. The author has over 14 years experience of supervising blind candidates in W.A.E.C Examinations and rarely have all needed braille papers appeared on time! The 1995 November, (private) S.S.C.E was particularly bad with only 11 out of 28 papers reaching the Gindiri blind students examination hall (Centre 30899) on time with another arriving an hour and 10 minutes into the exam! (Appendix 1)

Even where braille papers arrive in time, mistakes in the braille or poor reproduction may cause problems for the blind candidates. Diagrams may be omitted or poorly done, which further hampers them. W.A.E.C's "Instruction for Blind Candidates Centre" (page 1, paragraph 2) instructs supervisors to read them from the print copy provided the braille copy is unclear and yet print copies are not automatically provided and the supervisor often has to beg for them.

Where no braille copy of the question paper is provided, the question paper must be read to the candidates. This is never fully satisfactory and where there are diagrams, calculations or passages followed by questions, it is at best difficult, and at worst impossible, for the blind candidate to do him or herself justice. Furthermore, readers may be bored or impatient if asked to read something over and over again. Also, a reader's poor pronunciation or enunciation may mislead the candidate.

In some situations, such as among certain faculties of the University of Jos, question papers are not released for brailling until the sighted candidates are about to start their examination. This leads to a rushed job with no time for proofreading or raising complicated diagrams. The blind candidate has to wait a long time before starting and will finish very late.

Some question types are significantly harder for visually impaired candidates than for the normally sighted. These are the questions where a candidate has to look constantly from one place to another. The numbered gap questions so beloved of English language examiners is a case in point. While the sighted candidate can quickly glance from the gap to the options and back, the braille user wastes a lot of time searching for the option then searching again for the gap; the partially sighted and low vision candidates, with their difficulties in scanning, are also very significantly slower and less efficient in looking from place to place on the page or, worse, different pages. Similarly, the type of question with option I, II, III, IV and then a key to show which combination of these indicate A, B, C, D and E are very cumbersome and time consuming for the blind, and also to low vision and partially sighted candidates with their scanning difficulties as mentioned above.

2. Problems in Writing the Examination

Public Examination Boards normally allow blind candidates to braille or type their examinations; but, unfortunately, many blind candidates in internal examinations have to type their answer scripts for lack of anyone to transcribe braille scripts into print.

Even where there is a choice, the blind candidate has to weigh the pros and cons of each option and settle for what he or she considers the "lesser of two evils."

The disadvantages of typing answers are:

1. You cannot re-read what you have written (although you CAN ask the supervisor to read it for you).

2. You will not know if the ribbon has run out or if the line spacing is faulty unless the supervisor happens to notice and tells you.

3. Not all needed symbols (e.g Greek letters) are available on standard typewriters.

The main disadvantage of braille, on the other hand, is that the candidate has no way of checking upon the accuracy of the person transcribing his/her script into print for marking and could, therefore, be penalized for transcription errors beyond his/her control.

Another problem involves timing. Visually handicapped candidates are normally allowed extra time (although it is by no means unknown for individual supervisors to arbitrarily disallow this). In general, this is time-and-a-third for essay papers in art subjects and time-and-a-half for objective papers and essay papers in English Language and Mathematics, while the extra time allowed by Public Examination Boards is generally adequate, the author is of the opinion, based on long experience, that double time would be more appropriate for all Mathematics papers and for English Language objective papers (especially if there are a significant number of the "numbered gap" questions deplored above).

3. Problems with Results

The author has been involved with blind W.A.E.C candidates since 1983 and is yet to experience blind candidates' W.A.E.C results released on time. The best effort yet was the 1994 May/June (Schools) S.S.C.E where most, if not all, Plateau State Blind Candidates' results arrived with the second batch of results. She lives in hope of one day seeing them in the first batch! On the other hand, the results for Plateau State Blind Candidates in 1992 November/December (private candidates) S.S.C.E were released as late as early 1995, which was more than two years after the examination and about a year and nine months after the first and main batch of results. This can seriously hamper blind people in gaining both admission to higher education and gainful employment. It also leaves them not knowing whether or not they need to register for the next year's examination.

J.A.M.B and N.T.I, who examine at a comparable level and with similar relatively small numbers of candidates, normally release their blind candidates' results at the same time as those of their sighted peers. For this reason, the author is at a loss to know why W.A.E.C can not "get their act together" and do like-wise.

Question Variations

Hill and Shown (1995) note that a visually handicapped candidate may occasionally require different questions from his or her peers, for example, omitting diagrams if he has not been taught to draw and some (though by no means all) practical questions which may not be possible for a blind candidate. Where this is so, Hill and Shown stress that any alternative questions must be comparable to those set for the other candidates, noting that it is false kindness to set easier alternatives for the blind.

They deplore the fact that W.A.E.C. exempt blind candidates from practical papers and suggest that they should be supplied with an "alternative to practical" paper. In fact, some practical questions CAN be done, even by the totally blind. For example, blind people can do volumetric analysis using adapted plastic syringes in place of burettes and pipettes. If no talking PH meter is available, a teacher can simply say "no change" or "change" as appropriate to indicate the end point (Hill and Jurmang 1993). It is worth mentioning that Bitrus Gani, the first blind Nigerian to enter secondary school (Boys' Secondary School Gindiri in 1957) and to gain his West African School Certificate (in 1962 and with a Division I) sat for (and gained a credit in) Agricultural Science, including the same practical examination as the rest of the candidates.

Apparently, he was so competent that the external supervisor did not realize that Bitrus was blind until the Agricultural Science teacher told him so halfway through the examination. Hill and Shown (1995) especially deplore the fact that by being exempted from the practical science papers the blind students do not attempt the "short answer" questions which form the first section of the so called Biology practical paper (P54).

Recommendations

1. All visually handicapped students should be provided with the question paper in the form that they prefer for ALL examinations: braille, large print, ordinary print, read orally or any combination.

2. Care should be taken to supply suitable lighting conditions for photo phobic, bright light dependent, partially sighted, or low vision candidates.

3. Blind candidates should have double time in all Mathematics examinations and in English Language objective examinations if there are numbered gaps questions.

4. Examination Boards should seek to ensure that brailled question papers reach all exam halls on time.

5. Braillists should proofread carefully to avoid misleading errors.

6. Braillists should take care to ensure that all the braille copies are of good quality with no faint dots or missing lines on the thermoformed copies.

7. Attention must be paid to diagrams to ensure that they are intelligible to the finger reader.

8. Print copies of all question papers must accompany brailled question papers.

9. Where something goes wrong and there is no brailled or large print copy available, readers must be very patient and have clear and accurate pronunciation.

10. Those transcribing scripts from braille to print for marking must take great care to avoid transcription errors which will penalize the candidate.

11. Question papers must be released for brailling in time for:

(a) a competent job to be done, including diagrams and proofreading.
(b) the blind candidate to start at the same time as the other candidates.

12. Any invigilator refusing a blind candidate his extra time allowance should be severely penalized.

13. Partially sighted and low vision candidates should have an extra time allowance, but it should be less than that of the blind candidates.

14. W.A.E.C is urged to release blind candidates results at the same time as those of their sighted peers.

Conclusion

It is very commendable that Nigerian Public Examination Boards, such as W.A.E.C, J.A.M.B, N.T.I and N.B.E.M and State M.O.E's (and also many schools), do provide brailled question papers for blind candidates. However, they and all primary, secondary and tertiary institutions integrating visually handicapped students are urged to take the recommendations of this paper seriously in order to improve the already good quality of education available to blind Nigerians which, while it is, in the opinion of the author, second to none in Africa, still falls far short of the ideal in many ways.

References

ENIOLA, M.S. (1993) "The Visually Impaired" in ONWUCHEKWA, J.N.
A Comprehensive Textbook of Special Education. Agbo Areo Publishers, Ibadan pp29-41.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA (1977)
New National Policy on Education, Federal Government Press, Lagos.

HILL, K.E. (1991)
"Problems Encountered by VH and PH Students in Mainstream Secondary Schools" in OZOJI E.D., UMOLCE J.U and OLANIYAN S.O (Eds) Contemporary Issues in Mainstreaming of the Exceptional Child in Nigeria's 6-3-3-4 System of Education. N.C.E.C Jos pp23-32

HILL, K.E. and JURMANG I.J. (1993)
"Production and Adaptation of Local Material for Teaching of Science and Mathematics to the Visually Impaired" in OZOJI E.D. and NWAZUOICE I.K. (Eds) Education of the Exceptional Child in the 21st Century. N.C.E.C. Jos pp137-140.

HILL, K.E (1995)
Unpublished report on "Supply of Braille papers for 1995 Nov. S.S.C.E."

HILL, K.E. and SHOWN, D.G. (1995)
Guidelines for the Teaching Elements of Special Education of the Visually Impaired in Colleges of Education in Nigeria. Jos University Ltd, Jos.

THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM AND ASSESSMENT AUTHORITY
(Undated but recent)
Special Educational Needs and Examinations at 16: Support Materials for Schools. The School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, London (Ref KS4/93/003).

*Note: For a complete version of this paper, which includes Appendices, please contact the author at:

Kathryn E. Hill
Supervisor Centre 30899
G.M.C.V.H Plateau
Gindiri, NIGERIA

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