SSC and SSLC concessions for learning disability: four state boards compared

Start with the board, because the rules follow the board, not the city. A school in Pune may follow the Maharashtra State Board, CBSE, CISCE or an international curriculum, and each has its own concessions, paperwork and deadlines. The class ten state exam is the SSC in Maharashtra and Telangana and the SSLC in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Learning disability and board exam accommodations explains how to prepare from class nine on any board.

Families in Delhi NCR will find that their child’s school mostly follows CBSE, CISCE or an international board, as do many private schools in the other five cities; for them, read CBSE exam concessions for learning disabilities, ICSE and ISC concessions or IGCSE and IB access arrangements. The Marathi, Kannada and Tamil orders below are paraphrased, and anything that could not be confirmed appears as a question for the school.

The governing document is Government Resolution No. संकीर्ण-2017/(118/17)/एस.डी-6 of the School Education and Sports Department, dated 16 October 2018, with a supplement of 26 October 2023 that added Type-1 diabetes. Both are on the Maharashtra State Board’s ‘Special Student’ page. The resolution applies from 2018-19 to school exams and to the Std 10 and 12 board exams. It is in Marathi and this is a paraphrase, so confirm the current order with your child’s school.

It covers 21 categories, including learning disability, autism, intellectual disability, speech and language disability, and slow learners with borderline intellectual functioning. A category for other conditions names children with ADHD, who receive the same core package. For learning disability, the provisions include:

• An exam centre at the student’s own school or one near home.
• Twenty minutes extra for every hour.
• Up to 20 grace marks for a student who would otherwise fail, for regular students taking all six subjects.
• A writer where the medical certificate says one is needed, and an adult writer if required.
• A calculator in Std 10 and 12, if the student wishes, for Mathematics, Book-keeping and Accountancy, Physics and Chemistry.
• Relief on drawing figures and maps, an oral or multiple-choice exam in place of practicals, and long answers allowed in key points.

The evidence is a medical certificate; a Public Health Department resolution of 14 September 2018 sets which hospitals may issue it, so ask the school which it accepts. Until it arrives, the principal and teachers may give support at school level. A disability code is marked on the answer book.

Three points are open. The clause against penalising spelling and grammar was not found under learning disability. No current SSC list of language or maths exemptions was found, though principals may allow subject changes when parents apply. And no separate concessions deadline was found; the general window for the February–March 2027 SSC exam runs at the regular fee from 19 August to 31 October 2026, so ask now.

Karnataka’s SSLC provisions come from Government Order No. EP 62 SLB 2021 of 15 March 2021 and the board’s circular No. A8/ವಿ.ಸಾ.ಸೌ.ವಿ/50/2020-21 of 17 March 2021, which extended CBSE-model facilities to state-syllabus students from 2020-21. No later revision could be confirmed at the time of writing, and the board, now KSEAB, holds SSLC Exam-1 and Exam-2. The orders are in Kannada and this is a paraphrase, so confirm the current order with the school.

• Languages: a student with a learning disability may study only the medium-of-instruction language and is exempt from the other two.
• Subjects: a student with a learning disability or dyslexia may drop Mathematics and Science for two of Sociology, Economics, Political Science, Karnataka music or Hindustani music, with Social Science.
• Time and scribe: a scribe, compensatory time, or both, at 60, 50, 40 and 30 minutes for papers of 3, 2½, 2 and 1½ hours; the scribe is one level lower in education than the student, the student sits in a separate room, and a reader-only option exists.
• Other provisions: ground-floor seating, a green sticker on the answer script, exemption from minimum attendance, and a fee waiver for the main and supplementary exams.

Evidence can come from a Government hospital (the Chief Medical Officer, Civil Surgeon or Medical Superintendent), a national institute, or an NGO or practitioner registered with the RCI or the government. The head teacher applies to the exam centre’s chief superintendent for a scribe or reader, and to the district Deputy Director (Administration) for everything else.

Ask the school three things: how an autistic student is treated, since autism is not named in the SSLC language-exemption item; whether the 2008 and 2009 circulars that allowed dyslexic students simple calculators, and told examiners to overlook small spelling errors, still apply; and this year’s deadline. For II PUC, order EP 40 TPU 2022 of 24 June 2022 gives students with a learning disability or autism exemption from one language, an extra hour and a simple calculator.

Tamil Nadu’s current order is G.O. (Ms) No. 62 of the School Education (Government Examinations) Department, dated 25 March 2022 and forwarded by the Directorate of Government Examinations on 8 April 2022. It adds CBSE-model concessions for the SSLC and HSE (+1 and +2) exams to those already in force for dyslexia, which earlier orders of 2010 and 2012 covered, and groups learning disability, intellectual disability and autism together. The order is in Tamil and this is a paraphrase; confirm the current order with the school.

• Time: 20 minutes an hour, 60 minutes for a three-hour paper; the older concession for dyslexia was one extra hour.
• Help: a scribe, a question-paper reader or an adult prompter.
• Languages: exemption from writing any one language paper.
• Marking: no deduction for spelling mistakes in non-language subjects.
• Maths: Clark’s tables and a calculator under the older list; the newer list allows a calculator only for dyscalculia, so ask how the two are read together.
• Room: the ground floor, and a computer only if necessary, and only the exam centre’s.

The scribe is someone the candidate knows, with somewhat lower education than the class of the exam, or someone appointed under G.O. (Ms) No. 54 of 29 February 2016. The evidence is a certificate from a medical team of doctors or psychologists or, for a learning disability, from a nationally recognised institution or one recognised by the State Commissionerate for the Welfare of the Differently Abled; a copy of the UDID card may be added.

The head teacher applies with the certificate to the District Educational Officer for SSLC, or to the Chief Educational Officer for +1 and +2. The dates for March 2027 could not be confirmed and ADHD is not named, so ask about both.

Telangana’s order is G.O.Ms.No.27 of the School Education (Prog.II) Department, dated 7 November 2022, covering the SSC exam and class 6 to 10 exams from 2022-23. The Director of Government Examinations set the procedure in proceedings Rc.No.10/B-1/2022 of 5 December 2022, and a proforma for the March 2027 SSC exams has been published. The order is in English.

• Learning disability (code CS): exemption from one of the three languages; certain grammar and punctuation errors ignored; a pass mark of 20 instead of 35 in all subjects; assistive devices as required.
• Autism (code CA): exemption from one language; errors in grammar, punctuation, graphs, geometry and maps ignored; a pass mark of 10; thick-paper answer scripts.
• Every category: a scribe, 20 minutes an hour (65 minutes for a paper of 3 hours 15 minutes), or both; the SSC fee waived; the exam at the student’s own or a nearby school.
• The scribe: an own scribe must be no more qualified than the candidate, with an undertaking on Proforma-III; a reader instead of a scribe is decided case by case.
• Not for learning disability or autism: a computer. Rest breaks or a prompter only in extraordinary circumstances, with the Director’s permission.

Attendance relaxation of up to 50% covers autism but not learning disability. A calculator is allowed only where a category’s own list includes it, and the learning disability entry speaks of assistive devices as required, so ask whether that includes one. ADHD is not named.

The evidence is a disability certificate from a Government hospital (the Chief Medical Officer, Civil Surgeon or Medical Superintendent), the original with a copy attested by a Gazetted Officer, and the category must be entered on the SSC application form. The 2022 procedure has the parent’s request reach the school by 7 July, the District Educational Officer by 15 July and the Director by 25 July; confirm this year’s dates.

The table compresses the four orders above for the class ten exam. It is a starting point for the conversation with the school, not a substitute for the current order.

Two things the table cannot show. No official order reviewed says the marksheet or pass certificate records a concession, though this could not be confirmed either way. And a dropped language or subject will naturally show on the marksheet, so check what later courses require before choosing.

Take these to the head teacher or the school’s special educator in class eight or nine, and ask for the answers in writing.

• Which order does the school apply, and has the board issued anything newer?
• Which certificate will the board accept, from whom, and how recent must it be?
• When must our request reach the school, and when does the school send it on?
• Which language or maths relief applies to my child, and is a calculator allowed?
• Will the same concessions apply in unit tests and preliminary exams?
• If my child has ADHD, will the board consider it, and under which category?

A concession helps only if the child has practised with it. Extra time is wasted on a child who has never planned a paper with it, and a scribe is little use to a child who has never dictated an answer; a concession granted but never practised is a concession lost on the day. Preparing a child to use a scribe, reader or extra time covers the practice from class nine.

Special Minds does not assess children, arrange certificates or apply to boards. We introduce vetted remedial tutors for the board exam years, at home in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad and online anywhere in India, who work from the child’s assessment and practise the concessions with them.