For the past 15 years, Prakash has been travelling around the Klang Valley as a home tutor.

Some students from as far as Tanjung Malim, Perak, are even willing to travel to Kuala Lumpur every weekend to learn from Prakash in classes he holds in UM’s library.

Despite his disability, the 42-year-old has helped all his students from Forms 1 to 6 pass their Bahasa Melayu and history examinations.

He told FMT that he came into his field of work by accident, only stumbling upon his talent at teaching while working in an NGO’s counselling unit.

He said he accepted the job after suffering two years of unemployment and 200 failed interviews since he obtained a master’s degree in counselling and a bachelor’s degree in Bahasa Melayu from Universiti Malaya.

“I met many who failed their Bahasa Melayu examinations. There, I started to provide part-time tuition services before quitting my job to do so full-time,” said Prakash.

Prakash said he did not have problems in travelling to his students’ locations, but his main challenge was getting the trust of his students’ parents, who had doubts about his condition.

“They asked me how I taught,” he said, adding that the parents’ doubts were removed after seeing his students’ results.

“Once they saw their results, they stopped saying anything,” he said, adding that he depends on technology to ease the learning process.

Among others, he uses a screen reader programme, Job Access With Speech, to take notes and check on his students’ work.

Prakash said he takes satisfaction from dispelling negative stereotypes many have about the blind only being suited for begging or selling tissues.

Form 6 student A Tharsika, 20, said Prakash’s patience makes it easy for anyone to learn from him.

“It is easy to understand what he teaches. He never gets angry, even if you get an easy question wrong.

“Some do ask how he teaches given his disability, but I’ve never minded it because I believe we don’t need to judge one’s ability by their appearance,” she said.