Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 23, 2016 News
– pass rate declines, but performances still laudable
With five passes at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), 17-year-old
Melieka Crawford of East Ruimveldt, Georgetown, is elated that she can now pursue studies in International Relations at the University of Guyana.
Although as a child she dreamt of becoming a lawyer, her visual impairment caused her to review her dream career. She now hopes to one day become an Ambassador.
Crawford registered to write the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC)-administered examination through the Guyana Society for the Blind. She secured passes in Human and Social Biology, Social Studies, Principles of Business, Office Administration and English Language (three grade twos and two grade threes).
At a press conference held at the Blind Society’s 44 High St. Werk-en-Rust headquarters yesterday, Crawford disclosed that her biggest challenge was studying.
“I didn’t have a lot of resources and I tried to make the best of what I had, but it was still hard to do stuff when you don’t have much to do it with…that I found was really, really challenging but I tried to make the best with the little that I had,” related Crawford.
It all paid off in the end. According to the young lady, she was shocked when she first learnt that she was the top performer for the Blind Society.
“I almost lost it, but then I pulled it back together,” said Crawford, as she in an emotional tone added, “I did this so that I could make my parents feel proud of me…if it wasn’t for the teachers here I would have been at home doing nothing.”
This was not Crawford’s first attempt at writing CSEC. During an interview with this publication earlier this year, she disclosed that she had also attended the Blind Unit at St. Rose’s High School. She was schooled at that facility for a period of five years, but when she wrote three subjects at CSEC – English, Arts and Social Studies – she was not successful.
“I feel I will be able to do better at this sitting,” said Crawford, months ahead of sitting the recent examination. She even then attributed her confidence to her teachers at the Blind Society, whom she’d said were always encouraging her to do her best.
A total of 10 candidates were entered to write CSEC this year through the Blind Society. Among them were 41-year-old Amin Britton of Wismar, Linden who secured four CSEC passes (one grade one, two grade twos and one grade three); 18-year-old Crystal Aulder of South Road, Georgetown who secured four CSEC passes (one grade two, two grade threes and one grade four), and 17-year-old Visham Persaud of La Bonne Intention, East Coast Demerara, who also secured four passes (two grade twos, one grade three and one grade four).
While Britton plans on taking one-year break before furthering his studies at UG, Aulder said that she will be pursuing studies in International Relations at UG this year. Persaud on the other hand plans on re-sitting CSEC Office Administration in the coming year.
Although the overall percentage pass rate has declined this year, the performance of candidates who wrote the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examination through the Guyana Society for the Blind is laudable. The percentage pass rate this year is 75.6 compared to 80 percent last year. The previous year, when the programme registered its first batch to sit the CXC examination, the percentage pass rate was 84.6 per cent.
But according to Coordinator of the programme, Mr. Ganesh Singh, the percentage pass rate this year is still above the national average, which is about 65 per cent.
Singh yesterday speculated that the decline in the pass rate could be linked to the application and level of students who participated.
“We are still doing very well for a small programme, and dealing with the challenges that we do and working with children with visual disabilities,” said Singh, who added “we are making significant development and strides in the whole development and empowerment of children with visual disabilities within our society.”
According to Singh, since the start of the programme, “we have seen changes in approximately twenty-something lives and we are hoping that persons out there who possess the competencies and have an inclination towards academics they can job our programme if they have a visual disability…it is free of cost.”
President of the Blind Society, Mr. Cecil Morris, described the candidates’ performances this year as “another happy day in my life. When you get the results it makes you feel very happy.” He also encouraged other persons with visually impairment or are blind, to take advantage of the programme offered and make their contribution to the development of Guyana.
Speaking yesterday, too, was Vanessa Low-A-Chee, who taught the candidates English Language and Principles of Business, and has been a part of the programme from its inception. She noted too that while there has been a decrease in the percentage pass rate “we have to take into consideration that these are blind and visually impaired ones who are working with limited resources if any at all. They can’t read from a book or from a page and so they have to work with computers and some of them don’t own computers.”
Students are however able to access computers at the Society to aid the teaching/learning process.
“They have accomplished so much and for that we are so proud,” added Low-A-Chee.
Rosemary Ramit, another teacher, and student of the first batch of the programme, is currently preparing to graduate from the Cyril Potter of College.
Ramit currently offers her service as a teacher of Human and Social Biology. Acknowledging that Human and Social Biology is a very technical subject, she noted that “I know many times they wanted to give up and so on, but they stuck with it and they worked hard.”
Over the years the Society has gotten immense support from the Ministry of Education, the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, which has over the years been offering free internet service to the Society, and other private sector agencies and individuals.
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