While the Guyana Society for the Blind (GSB) has revolutionised how the visually-impaired access education in Guyana, there is still work to be done to ensure these individuals are able to pursue careers in the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathe-matics (STEM).
Ganesh Singh, GSB’s Programme Coordinator, told Stabroek News that the six GSB students who wrote the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations did not have much freedom in their programme selection. Singh stated that the students were unable to apply for certain courses as they did not have the opportunity to sit the Mathematics exam. This, he stated, was due to the difficulty that exists in administering exams of that nature to the visually-impaired.
All six students are now pursuing studies in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Guyana (UG).
This year’s batch of students achieved an overall pass rate of 80% in seven subject areas, including Caribbean History, Human and Social Biology and Principles of Business. The top student, Alwyn Adams, secured three Grade Ones, and two Grade Twos. There were other notable performances by Guillian Layne, who secured Three Grade Ones, a Grade Two and a Grade Three, and Ceion Rollox, who attained two Grade Ones, two Grade Twos and a Grade Three.
Asked about the preparedness of UG’s Turkeyen Campus to accommodate students with such disabilities, Singh relayed that the students would be going through the regular paces on campus and taking their classes alongside their peers. He informed Stabroek News that the students would, however, be aided by their computers and the use of the ‘Job Access with Speech’ (JAWS) software programme, which allows text-to-speech translation. The Programme Director further noted that although the software makes it easier for the students, systems still need to be put in place to facilitate them in having easier access to learning resources, including assistance with scanning and note taking.
The students make up the second batch of students to have had the opportunity to further their education through a GSB programme, which is supported by the Ministry of Education, the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project and GT&T.
