— physically challenged students excel at Grade Six Assessments

By Vanessa Braithwaite and Nafeeza Yahya
THEY may not have been awarded places at the top secondary schools in the region, but the differently-abled children who sat the 2017 National Grade Six Examination (NGSA) deserve high praise for braving the many storms and crossing the many hurdles for their achievements.
Visually-impaired Sean Carryl of the Amelia’s Ward Primary School (AWPS) in the mining town of Linden secured 418 marks at the examinations and was awarded a place at the Linden Foundation Secondary School.

The 11-year-old lad made it to the end of his six- year primary stint with the memories of two surgeries, changing schools and working extra hard to make it to the end of every school day.
His mother Malika Carryl told the Guyana Chronicle that Sean underwent two surgeries for cataract at age five after his sight started diminishing. Now he sees a little but only with the aid of special lenses.

Sean spent the first four years of his primary school life at the Visually Impaired Unit housed at the Wismar Hill Primary School, but his mother later transferred him to AWPS.
“I did a transfer because the distance was too far for him so I brought him to the Ward,” Carryl said. Now receiving an inclusive education, the challenges for Sean increased as he was unable to see anything in fine print. Note-taking and revision were very difficult with the absence of a special needs teacher at the school.
Even with this, dropping out was not an option for Sean, neither his mother, and for this willing spirit, he successfully graduated from the school.

ALWAYS WILLING
“We tried and he is always willing; I even send him to lessons where the teacher won’t use the fine print because we didn’t want to push him, we had to ease and press,” his mom said.
Notwithstanding his challenges, an ambitious Sean told the Guyana Chronicle that he was hoping to do better at the national examinations.
“I don’t feel so good about it [NGSA results] but I had to work really hard and I would like to thank my parents and teachers who were there for me,” the young man said.
Like Sean, Trinity Payne of the Linden School for the Differently-Abled who lost her hearing and speech as a result of cerebral palsy was also not awarded the school she desired, but her mother Lourette Payne is proud of her little 11-year-old who resolutely braved her challenges.

“It was a real challenge because I myself had to go and learn signs and so it was very challenging,” Payne said, adding that Trinity was even given extra lessons to assist her along the way.
Her mother believes that Trinity could have done better if more was available for her as a special needs child.
“She can do better than she is doing but she needs the support of somebody to sign for her because sometimes I don’t know to explain some things to her…. In maths, she does fairly ok but in English and so where you have to express yourself is kind of difficult, but we are still working with her,” the proud mother said.

Trinity was placed third in a Signing B competition held in Georgetown last year.
As she is about to commence her high school life, her mother is optimistic that things will be a little better since Trinity was placed at Harmony Secondary School where she(the mother) is a teacher.
“She will get the notes and I will be able to work along with her along with the lessons that we have started, so I am looking forward for her secondary education being a little better,” Lourette said, contending that more needs to be done for the special needs children.

NOT ENOUGH
They parents of Sean and Trinity are of the opinion that the Ministry of Education needs to do more for children who are differently-abled and who are placed in main stream education, since the limited facilities and staffing affect their ability to realise their full potential.
“I know that they are saying they are doing inclusive education, but the inclusion doesn’t really include these children, as such, they don’t have anyone signing and if you have persons at school (who) would be able to sign for them, it would be better for the children,” Lourette stressed, adding that while training in special needs is available, it is not specialised to handle the various disabilities.

Similar sentiments were echoed by Malika Carryl, who said instruments such as recorders and braille devices need to be provided to the visually impaired.
Linden Special Needs teacher, Shellon Swaving told this publication she agrees with the sentiments expressed by Lourette and Malika and pointed out that there is limited equipment for students with hearing impairment.
In the Ancient County of Berbice, Nirmala and Nazir Husain said their son Abdel Husain, who is perhaps the first student with autism to sit the NGSA, has made them proud
The young man, who attended the Albion Primary School and was diagnosed with autism at age six, scored 354 marks at the examinations.

Autism, a medical condition defined as a complex neurobehavioral condition that includes impairments in social interaction and developmental language and communication skills combined with rigid, repetitive behaviour. There are not a great many cases in Guyana and identifying Abdel’s condition was a challenge, said his mom, Nirmala, who is headmistress of the Corentyne Comprehensive Secondary School.

WASN’T TALKING
“At three years he wasn’t talking and we kept wondering why, because most children start their first words before one . At around three he said his first word ‘dada;’ we still didn’t realise he had a problem. We said
to ourselves he is a slow developer, so we decided to enroll him in a playschool hoping that interaction would help him develop talking, being among kids. It worked because he started picking up on words.

However, we started noticing potty training was a challenge but the teachers were very understanding. Then we moved on to nursery; he spent three years there because his motor skills were poor. He wasn’t holding stuff the way he was supposed to. We took him to a pediatrician at a private hospital in Georgetown and explained to him and he told us he had dyslexia, but when I returned home, I researched the diagnosis and realised it not similar to his behaviour. It continued, he was still having difficulties grasping stuff. He could not trace nor colour, he couldn’t do it by himself; we had to hold his hand until now we still teach him to trace,” his mother said.

At aged six and after a series of tests by US specialists, it was confirmed that Abdel was autistic. Nirmala said it was the toughest news they had to accept.
“We were told our child is autistic and there is not a medication to solve it,  but warned as the child gets older a temper comes with it and we are beginning to see it. But also warned to avoid putting him on
the medication to curtail the tantrums because of side effects,” Nirmala told this publication.

Abdel’s parents are yet to decide whether to allow him to continue in the public school system or send him to a private school.
“We are thinking whether to send him to a public or private school because crowd is his phobia, but my main concern is his transition; primary is one teacher, secondary is several and it would be very difficult in the secondary schools and you find also some teachers are not really equipped to deal with learning disability.

Somehow I feel we are limited in Guyana with children who fall under the autism spectrum; we see disability here as more physical than all these ADD syndromes,” the proud mother said.
When this newspaper visited Abdel at his Manager’s compound home in Albion Estate, he was sitting on the stairs eagerly awaiting the interview.

“I passed my exam,” he beamed before telling the Guyana Chronicle that “It [examination] was hard but I passed. I get to go to a new school but I will miss my teacher and my friends.”
An aspiring astronaut, the young man said he loves singing and plans to participate in swimming classes so that he can swim in the pool in the estate’s compound.

“I love to sing and I want to learn to swim, so I will be singing and swimming over the holidays,” he chuckled.

Nirmala said the journey for them has been difficult but with the support of family, educators and friends, they have managed to pull through.
She is encouraging parents to never give up on their children and to refuse to accept that a child with a disability cannot achieve an education or anything that a normal person can.