By Naomi Marshall

AT a press conference held on Tuesday, at the Guyana Society for the Blind, Ganesh Singh, a commissioner on the National Commission for Disability (NCD), announced that the Society for the Blind has gained an impressive pass rate of 95 percent at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination due to the programme it (the Society) executes.

The programme is tailored for persons who are blind or visibly impaired. However, over the past years, the programme has been opened to persons with physical and learning disabilities.

“These are students who, in most instances the education system failed because they never had an opportunity to write CSEC, or even if they did, they were not really catered for in an inclusive manner that they could have excelled, so this is a quick fix and it’s giving persons a second chance,” Singh explained.

“I can tell you that, because of this programme, most of their lives have been transformed and they now can look forward to a better future, be optimistic of the outcome of their life and it’s all because of them passing through this programme,” he added.

Securing the top position at the Society for the Blind CSEC programme 2019 was Faith Greene who gained one grade one, three grade two passes and two grade three passes.
The subjects Greene secured passes in are English A, Social Studies, Principles of Accounts, Human and Social Biology, Principles of Business and Office Administration.

The 18-year-old stated that she was filled with excitement when she heard of her results.
Greene who is a resident of Tucville said that preparation for the examination was challenging; however, the help and motivation she gained from her friends and teachers made things better for her.

Greene is visually impaired. However, she is not allowing her disability to stop her from becoming one of Guyana’s Journalists.
Greene who enjoys writing is planning to commence Communication Studies at the University of Guyana, come September 2019.

“Just don’t give up. Know what you want in the future, have a plan for your future and you will get to pursue anything,” is Green’s advice to persons living with disabilities that may want to further their studies.

Also celebrating his accomplishment was 37-year-old Omesh Jhagroo, who attained passes in English A, Social studies, Human and Social Biology, Office Administration and Principles of Business.

The 37-year-old who is blind, expressed that he was very proud of his achievement since he wrote CSEC when he was younger and had sight but did not obtain any passes due to the many “struggles” he encountered during his school life.

“I am very proud to know that I have lost my sight and I can be able to do something that I can be proud of because if someone who is able enough can do it, it makes me who have a disability feel like I can do it too, it don’t make a difference, as long as you put your mind to it, you can make it,” Jhagroo stated.

Jhagroo lost his sight at age 25 due to a disease called Uveitis. However, he added, “even though I lost my sight, I am still comfortable with life. To this point I have achieved and I think I can go more too.”

Jhagroo intends to pursue studies in the field of Social Work at the University of Guyana in the near future because he has a major love for counselling.
“I love doing counselling, I love to advise persons and give persons confidence as well because since I have lost my sight there have been so many weird questions coming to me so in this Social Work area I can clear a lot of the questions and I can be able to help persons too,” he noted.

In addition, Jhagroo thinks that the government should do more to make persons living with disabilities feel more included in society, especially in the schools so they could feel motivated to achieve their education.

“If you can put things in place for them (persons living with disabilities), it can make them feel more confident in going ahead and doing the subjects they have to do and it can give them motivation because of the environment that they would be in. I think the government can do a lot more to make them feel comfortable in doing the subjects,” he added.
Twenty-seven-year-old Sachi Harrichan who wrote CSEC for the first time secured passes in four out of the five subjects he wrote.

“It was very challenging because of my disability, and there were times when I felt as though I couldn’t have made it but I pulled through, I made it, I feel very pleased to know that I have CSEC examination subjects and that I wrote and I got through with my subjects,” he expressed.

The aspiring entrepreneur stated that he will be writing Mathematics at the Society for the Blind in the near future since the subject is needed to become an entrepreneur and when entering the field of Information Technology.

Meanwhile, Singh stated that the programme commenced in 2014 and, to date, has seen 42 students living with disability participating in CSEC, of which, 47 percent would have been enrolled into tertiary level education, while some were employed.
With the use of digitized textbooks and handouts, amongst others, students are taught each subject four times a week, and have timetables tailored to the availability of the students and tutors.

Singh pointed out that the institution is hoping to expand its service to Linden, Region 10. However, tutors and a space are needed to host classes.

He is therefore requesting that persons, interested and willing to donate a space for the institution to host classes, make contact with him on 652-8975.

“We will retrofit it (the space) with whatever is necessary to ensure that the students are comfortable so that we can transmit the classes to students in Linden because there are a lot of persons there who are visually impaired and blind who want to be a part of the programme but because of the prohibitive transportation cost to travel from Linden to Georgetown, they can’t make it,” the commissioner added.

Singh also expressed gratitude to everyone who helped the institution, especially the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of the Presidency, Department of Public Service for the contributions they have made, and are making, to the institution.