By Telesha Ramnarine

TEN-YEAR-OLD Khalid Mohamed suffered a debilitating injury on his way home from school one afternoon while on his bicycle. As a result, he broke his right leg. Imagine his horror and that of his family as they thought about the fact that the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) was just a few months away.
How would he make it to attend school? He couldn’t afford to miss a thing at this point of his journey towards the exam. The entire family was distraught. But his grandmother felt it the most. She showed up at the school and started to cry during her talk with the headmistress and Khalid’s class teacher, Eion Beaton.
The family was assured that work would be sent for Khalid using online means, but this wouldn’t suffice in the minds of his caring family members. Fortunately for them, Khalid’s teacher stepped up and offered to help.

“At the end of the meeting with the headmistress, I pulled his grandmother in a corner and told her I would come home and tutor the child,” Beaton recalled in an interview with Pepperpot Magazine a few days ago.
In all of his roughly six years as a teacher, Beaton, a Grade Six teacher at Tuschen Primary School, said his experience helping Khalid stands out to him the most. “I got to know him better because it was on a one-on-one basis I was teaching him. I went in the afternoons after school and did an hour or a little more with him,” he shared.
Impressed by Khalid’s resilience and determination during these trying times, Beaton was also touched by his family’s unwavering dedication to his education. “I offered to tutor Khalid during his time of recovery, and despite his physical limitations, he demonstrated an unparalleled level of commitment and courage,” Beaton said.

“Throughout our tutoring sessions, I witnessed Khalid’s tenacity as he tackled his studies with vigour and enthusiasm, never allowing his circumstances to define him or dampen his spirits. His drive to succeed in the face of adversity is an extraordinary testament to the power of resilience,” he continued.
While this unforeseen event may have prevented Khalid from attending school and made him miss out on crucial preparatory class time for his studies, Khalid was determined not to let his story end there.

Last May 3 and 4, he couldn’t write NGSA at the school like everyone else because it would have been challenging for him to get up the stairs. Hence, arrangements were made for him to do so at a health centre.
Prior to writing the exam, Khalid became emotional and started to cry. His teacher, though, was on hand to chat with him there and then and offer words of support and encouragement. In the end, he said he got through just fine with the exams.

“If you can make a difference, an impact, every child matters,” says Sir Beaton, adding, “It was a satisfying experience. It felt good to help him in this manner for a little over three months. The younger ones are going to lead our country one day, so I feel good being able to make an impact on the younger minds.”
Beaton is a third-year University of Guyana teacher studying for his degree in education. Even with his busy schedule, he made the time to assist Khalid. With the help of his motorcycle, he went to Khalid’s home in the afternoons and afterwards attended his classes online.
Even as Khalid was in a wheelchair at home, he benefitted from such loving assistance and successfully managed to write his exams. “He had lost about a month’s work, so he had to do some catching up. It was challenging to assist him in this way, but it was worth it. He had a special place in my heart,” Beaton expressed.