Despite challenges, Blind Society willing to offer CSEC Maths

Aug 24, 2016 News

Funding continues to be a major issue in sustaining the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination programme at the Guyana Blind Society.

Ganesh Singh

This is according to Coordinator of the Programme, Ganesh Singh.
Singh at a press conference on Monday said that while the Ministry of Education caters to the salary of teachers who give their time to prepare blind and visually impaired students for the examination, other administrative funding is left to the Society.
Singh said that because of limited funding, the Society currently is not able to do as much as it would like for its CSEC students.
“We would like to do more to help the students but again finances is our main challenge,” said Singh who noted that while fundraising activities is an option, this has not happened at the society for some time. He, however, noted that there are occasions when companies and individuals would donate towards the Society’s initiatives.
He asserted, though, that although “there is no organised programme of fundraising we are fortunate, due to our track record and being here for a very long time, persons would just call, companies especially, and give us funding and so.” There are instances, he noted, that the Society has written to some entities seeking support for specific activities and support is generally forthcoming.
Singh asserted that this support, though limited, is very important, since the Government subvention is very minimal. But should steady increased funding be made available at the Society, Singh is confident that more programmes, aside from the CSEC programme, could be introduced at the Society.
Among the measures Singh was hoping to introduce from the inception of the CSEC programme a few years ago was to have classes for the blind streamed live. This, however, was not possible in previous years. But with support from the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, which provides free internet to the Society, this feat is now possible.
“At this time we are having one of our students from Berbice joining us during classes via Skype and this is a way of cutting cost and allowing students in outlying areas to be a part of the programme,” Singh added.
Over the past three years, the programme has registered blind and visually impaired students to write CSEC – a number of whom have since moved on to the University of Guyana (UG). According to Singh, “we will be having about 11 students at UG (this year) who came out of this programme directly and that is a significant accomplishment. Every year, so far, we have had people at UG; they are not going to UG and making up numbers, they are doing exceedingly well.”
Currently the Society is able to prepare and register students for the subject areas of Social Studies, English, Principles of Business, Office Administration, Human and Social Biology and Religious Education. But the entity has been eyeing Mathematics as well. This, however, may not be realised in the very near future, Singh confided.
According to him, while efforts are being made by the local Ministry of Education and at the Caribbean level, to introduce CXC for the blind, a challenge to this is the use of Braille… very few persons in Guyana have skills in Braille and that is why we try to do this programme electronically,” added Singh.
He nevertheless pointed out that while Braille is still relevant, the use of computers is the preferred way to deliver a lot of things to persons who have visual disabilities.
“It is the main means of communication for persons with visual disabilities these days,” said Singh as he disclosed that, typically, preparing students for CSEC means teaching them to learn the computer simultaneously.
“Usually the students who take advantage of the programme have little to no foundation and we try to transform them probably in two years. It is not like they come with the basics,” Singh noted.
Although the task is likely to be greater for the Blind Society, Singh said that the Society will be happy to include Mathematics.
“It is something we are hoping for; I don’t know how soon but they are setting up a network of teachers and educators for the blind. It is a regional network and the hope is to have them deal with certain issues, especially Maths for persons with visual disabilities at the CXC level.”

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