School symposium for National Disability Week 2016, after four years

Nov 10, 2016 News

National Disability Week 2016 will be observed from Sunday November 27 – Saturday December 3, 2016. International Day for Persons with Disabilities will be observed on Saturday, December 3, 2016.
The theme for this year’s activities is: “Education is the Path to Inclusion and Rehabilitation”.
The Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities, at a symposium in relation to National Disability Week 2016 activities, on Tuesday 8th November, 2016, at Queen’s College Auditorium, Camp Road, Georgetown, established three categories— primary schools, secondary schools and Special Needs schools respectively.
The schools were asked to submit essays of not fewer than 450 words before October 24, 2016. Only Queen’s College and the Grahams Hall Primary school presented essays, yesterday.
The participating schools in the symposium were Queen’s College, St. Joseph High School, the Grahams Hall Primary School and the David Rose Special Needs School.
Topics for the competition; “The ultimate goal of inclusive quality education is to end all forms of discrimination and assist in improving the lives of persons living with disabilities”, for Secondary Schools; “Do you think that if parents and teachers co-operate, persons living with disabilities would enjoy a better quality of life?” for Primary Schools; “In what ways can young people provide support for persons living with disabilities” and “In what ways can your community play an important role in empowering persons living with disabilities”?, for Primary and Special Needs schools.
The patron of the event was the Chairman of the Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities, Leon Walcott.
Walcott stated that the symposium is supposed to be an annual event, but the support from the public and other schools fell short. Funding was also short, he said. The last essay competition held as part of Disability Week would have been in 2012. An invitation would have been sent to a number of schools, including primary, secondary and specials needs.
The Symposium Essay winners for the primary school category are Mahendra Pooran in third position, Rebekah Seepersaud, in second position, and the first place winner, Hadiyah Mcbean. Queen’s College students, Analisa Versammy, Stephen Lewis in second place and the winner Omari Joseph were the top three finishers.
They were presented with trophies by Walcott. The essays were judged on structure and organisation, development of essay, clarity of expression, use of language, writing style, originality, creativity and imagination, relevance to the theme and accuracy of information.
The Guyana Council of Organizations for Persons with Disabilities was established in 2008 under Walcott. The objective was to be an advocate for persons living with disability in Guyana. Persons with disabilities continue to face barriers in their participation as equal members of society and violations of their human rights, not just in Guyana but in all parts of the world.

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