RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Six blind and vi­su­al­ly im­paired stu­dents have de­fied ex­pec­ta­tions in this year’s Sec­ondary En­trance As­sess­ment (SEA), prompt­ing the Trinidad and To­ba­go Blind Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion (TTB­WA) to call for greater in­vest­ment in in­clu­sive ed­u­ca­tion and high­er ex­pec­ta­tions for chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties.

The As­so­ci­a­tion yes­ter­day con­grat­u­lat­ed Asa Wallen, Ethan Pan­do­hie, Azaria Bis­soon­dath, Aidan Sookram, Je­re­mi­ah Pen­co and Faith Gra­ham.

In a state­ment, TTB­WA ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Ken­neth Suratt said the stu­dents’ achieve­ments rep­re­sent­ed much more than strong SEA re­sults.

“To­day, we cel­e­brate much more than SEA re­sults. We cel­e­brate what hap­pens when ex­pec­ta­tions are high, rights are re­spect­ed and chil­dren are giv­en every op­por­tu­ni­ty to learn,” Suratt said.

“These six stu­dents have shown the en­tire coun­try what can be achieved through hard work, de­ter­mi­na­tion and tal­ent. Their suc­cess chal­lenges us to move be­yond as­sump­tions and recog­nise that chil­dren who are blind and vi­su­al­ly im­paired be­long in every class­room, every con­ver­sa­tion and every op­por­tu­ni­ty that our ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem has to of­fer.”

The as­so­ci­a­tion said the stu­dents’ suc­cess was built on de­ter­mi­na­tion, dis­ci­pline and re­silience, prov­ing that blind­ness or vi­su­al im­pair­ment should nev­er de­fine a child’s po­ten­tial.

It al­so paid trib­ute to the par­ents and fam­i­lies who spent years ad­vo­cat­ing for their chil­dren, mak­ing sac­ri­fices, co­or­di­nat­ing sup­port and en­sur­ing they had ac­cess to learn­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties.

The as­so­ci­a­tion al­so ac­knowl­edged prin­ci­pals, teach­ers, itin­er­ant teach­ers for stu­dents with vi­su­al im­pair­ments, class­room as­sis­tants and oth­er ed­u­ca­tion pro­fes­sion­als who sup­port­ed the chil­dren through­out their pri­ma­ry school jour­ney.

Ac­cord­ing to Suratt, the stu­dents’ ac­com­plish­ments should serve as a na­tion­al re­minder that chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties do not re­quire sym­pa­thy, but equal op­por­tu­ni­ties.

“Our mes­sage to T&T is sim­ple: raise ex­pec­ta­tions,” he said.

Suratt said their achieve­ments should in­spire pol­i­cy­mak­ers and ed­u­ca­tors to con­tin­ue cre­at­ing schools where every learn­er can ful­ly par­tic­i­pate and re­alise their po­ten­tial.

The as­so­ci­a­tion not­ed that in­clu­sive ed­u­ca­tion is recog­nised as a hu­man right un­der Ar­ti­cle 24 of the Unit­ed Na­tions Con­ven­tion on the Rights of Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties, which af­firms the right of per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties to ac­cess ed­u­ca­tion with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion and on the ba­sis of equal op­por­tu­ni­ty.

It said this prin­ci­ple is al­so re­flect­ed in T&T’s Na­tion­al Pol­i­cy on Per­sons with Dis­abil­i­ties, which calls for the re­moval of bar­ri­ers to ed­u­ca­tion and greater par­tic­i­pa­tion in so­ci­ety.

The TTB­WA stressed that ac­ces­si­ble text­books, ex­am­i­na­tion ma­te­ri­als, as­sis­tive tech­nol­o­gy, trained ed­u­ca­tors, ori­en­ta­tion and mo­bil­i­ty sup­port, and in­clu­sive teach­ing prac­tices are es­sen­tial—not op­tion­al—for en­sur­ing every child has the op­por­tu­ni­ty to suc­ceed.

SEA PLACE­MENTS

Asa Wallen – Bon Air Sec­ondary School

Ethan Pan­do­hie – Bel­mont Boys’ Sec­ondary School

Azaria Bis­soon­dath – San Fer­nan­do West Sec­ondary School

Aidan Sookram – Mara­bel­la North Sec­ondary School

Je­re­mi­ah Pen­co – Siparia East Sec­ondary School

Faith Gra­ham – Sig­nal Hill Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive School, To­ba­go