TEN students of the Guyana Society for the Blind, despite their disabilities, will today take a historical step when they sit the first of five subjects at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams via computers supported by voice-automated software. 

The ten students scheduled to sit the examination today are: Rosemarie Ramitt, Leroy Phillip, Odessa Blair, Diane Singh, Anthony Robinson, Douglas Tika, Roy Stewart, Muesa Haynes and Vishaul Mohabir, who are all either blind or visually-impaired, as well as Laurel Lewis who is physically impaired.
The first examination, Human and Social Biology, commences at 13:00hrs today and will be held at the African, Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) building, Thomas Lands.
According to Coordinator for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) programme at the Guyana Society for the Blind office, Ganesh Singh, the collaborative effort between the Society and the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project led to a computer-literacy training programme in January of 2012.
He said that the Society’s urgency to educate their members and provide equal opportunities through computer literacy, led to the development of the idea that there are competent persons who are capable of sitting the exam and so the CSEC programme was officially launched on January 7, 2013.
Singh explained that classes are held four times a week at the office of the Guyana Society for the Blind. “As a result of this eighteen months of training, the students are now prepared to sit the five subjects which are Human and Social Biology, Social Studies, Office Administration, English Language and Principles of Business,” the Coordinator said.
He acknowledged the OLPF’s integral support in providing the laptops and other technical services to ensure that the students were provided with adequate training. In addition, teachers were provided by the Ministry of Education, while other support was given by the Private Sector and the Raj Foundation in Canada, which assisted by providing equipment.
Singh said that the students attended classes and the teachers provided materials which would be downloaded onto their laptops for them to access. A voice-installed software then assisted by guiding them through the steps and reading information provided by the teachers. This allowed them to study without having to take notes as everything was provided electronically.
The CXC examination will be designed in the same way, whereby, a softcopy will be downloaded onto their laptops and the voice automated software will read the examination paper to them. The exam personnel will then print the answer sheets and they will be presented to the CXC exam division.
The event has been described as historical since it is the first time that the exam will be done electronically in the Caribbean for students with disabilities and it will also be the first time Guyana will have so many blind, visually and physically impaired students sitting the CSEC exam at once.
Singh noted that the core of the event is the OLPF initiative which had drawn some amount of political controversy at the inception. He stressed that as a result of students benefitting from the provisions of these laptops, the opportunity was provided for them to further stretch their wings into sitting the CSEC exam which he described as the foundation for an individual’s life. “From this, students can go on to get jobs, they can continue to further their studies at the University of Guyana or at the Cyril Potter College of Education… this is the basic foundation that is needed for their development,” he said.

According to Singh, there is need for assistance in acquiring “Dragon Naturally Speaking”, a speech recognition software which converts audio into text and which will allow physically impaired students to work more efficiently. The Blind Society lacks this much needed software at present, so the physically impaired student who will be sitting the exam today will be provided with an invigilator who will assist her in typing her responses.
However, the other students are well trained and equipped to type efficiently despite their disability and so they would not require any assistance during the examination.
Meanwhile, Project Manager of OLPF project, Margo Boyce, was delighted to know that the initiative which was launched a few years ago by the Government of Guyana is having such a tremendous impact on the society. She noted that “it is equally important that we remember those who are disabled or impaired and render assistance so that as much potential can be tapped into.”

(By Ravin Singh)