-Visually impaired students beat odds at NGSA

AMIDST frequent hospital visits, rejection, bullying and depression, visually impaired Linden students were able to beat those odds just to see a secondary school awarded on their National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) results slip. Despite being differently-abled, failure could never have been an option, for the determination to just say, ‘I have passed’ was stronger than any negative or unfortunate situation they would have faced. This is the case for 11-year-old Montel Antigua of One Mile Primary School who gained a place at the Wisburg Secondary School in Linden.

His mother Althea Antigua is extremely proud of what her son, who lost an eye during a tragic accident two years ago, achieved. Her unexpected happiness had brought tears of joy, even as she reminisced on the day when Montel, lost his eye. It’s an unfortunate ending to a boy simply being a boy. “He was nine years old and he was playing in the yard. He had a nail pulling to a wood and just like that the nail pitch straight into his one eye and that is how he lost it,” she related.

For his performance, Antigua said, “It was a great surprise to me, I didn’t expect to see so much marks, it was really shocking to me,” she said. Apart from the fact that the eye keeps being infected, Montel endures severe bullying in school and despite this, he goes every day just to put forth that effort in making his mother proud at the NGSA examination. He had to work extra hard to be successful, all on the strain of one eye. “He would leave to go to school at eight in the morning and would normally come back until night,” his mother remembered.

In the examination, though, Montel had a reader and a scribe for him which made things a bit easier. Montel said he too is shocked at his results and while he worked hard to just pass, he didn’t expect to score as many marks as he did. He recalled the tedious preparation process and would like to thank his teachers, especially Rawl Ford and Shellon Swaving for assisting him through this tough journey of his life.

MORE AFRAID THAN EXCITED
While Montel would have passed his examination, he and his mother are more afraid and nervous about this new chapter of his life because of the overwhelming bullying the little fellow had to endure at school. More worrying is that most of the bullies have passed to go to the same school as Montel, a reality she was hoping not to occur.

“They would tell him about his one eye self and so and that would get him into a state of depression, so right now I am contemplating sending him to a private school over here on the Wismar shore but I can’t really afford it,” Antigua said, she is currently unemployed and it would have been her desire to see Montel attend a school where he would be able to get the individual attention, to experience a new environment with new children.

Little Akela Nelson of the Watooka Day Primary is also visually impaired and copped herself a place at the Linden Foundation Secondary School. When it is dark, Akeela does not see at all and she too would have had to push in an extra effort to achieve her success. Like Montel, she was given physical assistance at the sitting of her examination. Her mother Onika Nelson is also very proud of her daughter’s performance because, despite her disability, she weathered the storm and achieved greatness.

Akela went through the same rigorous preparation process as her peers; long days, a lot of homework and studying and extra lessons. Onika related that her print had to be larger than the regular children’s but she had a lot of support from her teachers and her mother is grateful for this. Her mother is also very jittery at the fact that Akela will be experiencing a whole new domain and will be far away from home, since she lives within walking distance of her primary school but nevertheless is looking forward for her continued success at high school.

PROUD TEACHER
The teacher attached to the Wismar Hill Research Institute for the Blind, Shellon Swaving, who dealt with both children on a weekly basis, is also proud of what they would have achieved. She said, “I feel really good about it. It’s challenging to have a disability and be able to overpower it and focus on your education. You know everyday persons would remind them about their disability and say they are not able to do it, but they were able to put that aside and still have good grades,” Swaving said.

Special needs teachers attached to the Research Institute are mandated to visit the various primary schools weekly to lend support to the visually impaired children. Swaving said that it was a collaborative effort among all the teachers including their class teachers that made this possible. Swaving commits to continue supporting the children during their high school journey as well.