Eighteen-year-old Faith Green, a visually impaired student, has secured six passes at this year’s Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination.
Green, who resides in TucVille, Georgetown, was able to pursue the subjects with assistance from the Guyana Society for the Blind.
In an interview with Guyana Times International on Tuesday at the Society’s headquarters on High Street, Georgetown, the teen, who was the best performing student at the Society, said she intends to further her studies with her aim to become a journalist.
Green, like her colleagues, wrote English A, Social Studies, Principles of Accounts, Human and Social Biology, Principles of Business and Office Administration. She secured a Grade One, three Grade Twos and two Grade Threes.
While sharing her journey to success, the student said she was faced with a number of challenges but particularly listed health issues as the major one.
Due to the problems she faced with her sight, Green explained that she experienced severe headaches whenever she attempted to study for long hours.
“Most of the challenges came from, you know, you have to study a lot, you have to work real hard to get the subjects that you wanted. Sometimes you didn’t want to but you had to force yourself cause at the end you made a difference”, the young lady stated.
Another visually impaired student, Omesh Jhagroo, 37, in tears, explained that he lost his sight at the age of 25 due to health complications.
As a child, Jhagroo said, he always had difficulty seeing and was unable to perform like the other students in his class.
Nonetheless, he believes that if a person living without disabilities can write and ace the exams, then so can persons living with disabilities.
“As long as you put your mind to it, you can make it,” he assured. He secured passes in five subjects.
Twenty-seven-year-old Sachi Harricharan explained that there were times he felt like giving up, but continued studying.
Today, he said, he is very “pleased” to know he was able to secure passes in five subject areas.
Harricharan plans to write Mathematics at next year’s CSEC examination as he intends to become an entrepreneur and is cognisant of the importance of the subject.
On the other hand, 18-year-old Robecka Edinboro, who is visually impaired, said although she was not able to pass Mathematics, she is happy that she secured passes in four subjects.
This year, the Guyana Society for the Blind saw the sixth batch of students sitting the examinations. Five children were able to write CSEC and a 95 per cent pass rate was recorded, the best in a number of years.
Programme Coordinator for the Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities, Ganesh Singh noted that with the individual successes, it will assist the students in securing jobs.
