Malappuram: Dear Education Minister, please listen to the Independence Day message of Ayisha Sameeha, a Plus One student. Her voice is not just her own but for every visually challenged student sitting in higher secondary classrooms across the State. With a single order, you could end their struggle.

Sameeha voices a simple grievance; that she has no Braille textbooks. Classes began in June, but the wait for textbooks in braille language still continues. When she laments that without Braille textbooks their dreams remain imprisoned, it is a truth that should touch anyone who can see and hear.

Sameeha, a Plus One student of Calicut Higher Secondary School for the Differently-abled, shared her anguish in a social media post on Independence Day. Currently, the government provides Braille textbooks only up to Class 10. Beyond that, visually challenged students are expected to learn by listening to others or having lessons read out to them. Sameeha describes this as a system far from practical.

There are fewer than 100 visually challenged students in higher secondary classes across Kerala. Sameeha’s appeal is on behalf of all of them. Sameeha requests not to turn a blind eye to us simply because we are few in number. For, they too carry colourful dreams, she adds