Visually impaired students excel at CSEC

By Isanella Patoir

The Guyana Society for the Blind recorded their best performance at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations programme for the disabled and visually impaired with a 95 per cent pass rate.

Five students wrote the examinations this year and the top student Faith Green wrote seven subjects and achieved one grade one, three grade twos and two grade threes.

Faith is an aspiring journalist and will be starting the University of Guyana in September.

At a news conference Tuesday, the 18-year-old visually impaired Tucville resident said she studied a lot and is proud of her achievement.

“I feel excited and I want to become a journalist…I enjoy writing and I am planning to attend the University of Guyana this year to start my studies in communications,” the top student said.

The other top student Omesh Jhagroo first wrote the CSEC examinations before he lost his sight at 25-years-old.

Now 37-years-old and completely blind, Omesh attained two grade twos and three grade threes.

He said he is comfortable with being blind and believes he can achieve more in life.

“I will first like to say it’s a great achievement, I feel proud of myself…I did write it [CSEC] when I was seeing, but I did not achieve my subjects like how I did now and I am very proud to know that I lose my sight and I can do something I am proud of,” Omesh said.

Another student, who is a 27-year-old aspiring graphic designer, Sachi Harricharran achieved passes in four of the five subjects he wrote.

“I feel very pleased to know that I have CSEC subjects,” he said.

The programme does not currently offer Mathematics at CSEC and Haricharran is waiting for this to become a reality for him to sit the exam.

“I want to have my own business in the future so I feel it is very important to take up math,” Haricharran said.

The other students are Romell Narine who has a physical disability and gained one grade one, one grade two and three grade threes along with Robecka Edinboro who gained passes in Electronic Document and Management Preparation and Office Administration.  

Since 2014, a total of 42 disabled and visually impaired persons wrote the CSEC examinations via the Guyana Society for the Blind.

Ganesh Singh, an executive member of the Guyana Society for the Blind, said that since the programme started, 47 per cent of the students are attending tertiary education and 45 per cent are currently employed.

Singh said he is proud of the students’ achievements.

“We were very successful and when we did our calculations this year the students got an average pass rate of 95 per cent, which is much better than any other batch that wrote the CSEC exams. This year overall the students did better although the total number of students that wrote was only five,” Mr Singh said.

The Ministry of Education provides textbooks and other resources for the programme. The Ministry also pays the examination fees and part-time tutors.

The teaching method is fully computerized and the students currently have three-part time tutors.

Mr Singh said the programme is in need of more tutors and is looking to expand to cater for persons with visual impairment or disability in Linden Region 10.

According to Mr Singh, there are high numbers of persons who are visually impaired in Linden but cannot join the programme because of transportation cost to Georgetown.