Five schools in Port-of-Spain took part in a Par­a­lympic School Day for phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly chal­lenged stu­dents yes­ter­day at the Jean Pierre Sports Com­plex, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain. The event, or­gan­ised and ex­e­cut­ed by stu­dents of the East Mu­cu­rapo Sec­ondary School, was ini­ti­at­ed un­der a train­ing pro­gramme by the British Coun­cil's In­ter­na­tion­al In­spi­ra­tion Young Sports Lead­ers Pro­gramme.

Project man­ag­er of In­ter­na­tion­al In­spi­ra­tion, Allyson McK­ell-Pan­tin, said the event was im­por­tant be­cause it brought in­to fo­cus one of the main as­pects of sport.

She not­ed even though oth­er schools took part in the pro­gramme, East Mu­cu­rapo was the on­ly school to try some­thing dif­fer­ent. East Mu­cu­rapo en­gaged the par­tic­i­pa­tion of phys­i­cal­ly chal­lenged stu­dents in their sport­ing pro­gramme. McK­ell-Pan­tin said: "It is quite com­mend­able for the young lead­ers to take on a project like this and to have it ex­e­cut­ed in such a short pe­ri­od of time. "What it takes some com­pa­nies weeks to ac­com­plish, they did in a few days."

The stu­dents, who had on­ly four days pri­or to the event to train, plan and or­gan­ise, were in high spir­its and took their re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to the project se­ri­ous­ly as they fa­cil­i­tat­ed the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the phys­i­cal­ly chal­lenged stu­dents in ac­tiv­i­ties specif­i­cal­ly de­signed for them. Prin­ci­pal of East Mu­cu­rapo, Der­rick Phillip, said the man­date of the British Coun­cil was that all chil­dren be in­volved in sport and that East Mu­cu­rapo sought to demon­strate the need to be all in­clu­sive. He ex­pressed pride in his stu­dents, not­ing that the project built con­fi­dence. He saw an in­crease in their lev­el of ma­tu­ri­ty.

He said the event al­lowed the phys­i­cal­ly chal­lenged stu­dents to feel equal as they par­tic­i­pat­ed with their able-bod­ied peers. Vice prin­ci­pal of Ser­vol's Spe­cial School, Eliz­a­beth Court­ney, whose stu­dents par­tic­i­pat­ed in the ac­tiv­i­ties ex­pressed her ad­mi­ra­tion for the project, say­ing for chil­dren to have or­gan­ised the event whol­ly was an amaz­ing thing. Sports­man of the Year, Roger Daniel, who was spe­cial­ly in­vit­ed by the stu­dents, said he was amazed by the in­ter­ac­tion of stu­dents of East Mu­cu­rapo's phys­i­cal­ly chal­lenged pupils. The East Mu­cu­rapo stu­dents fa­cil­i­tat­ed the par­tic­i­pa­tion in sports which in­clud­ed wheel­chair bas­ket­ball, blind re­lay and wheel­chair danc­ing.