AS a Caribbean student, the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams are a definitive moment in your educational experience. For many, it can be one of the most gruelling experiences, triggering stress and anxiety in teenagers across the region.
In addition to the stress of preparing for exams, each student will have personal battles to overcome. Some students must endure the added pressures of overbearing parents, others may have learning disabilities. During the pandemic, according to the CXCs 2021 examination report in October, many students recorded having to deal with the death of a parent or guardian during their examination year.
Whatever the hurdle, it is safe to say that the 2021 CXC graduating classes for both the Caribbean Secondary Entrance Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) have had to prepare through one of the most difficult periods in the council’s history in the region.
For 20-year-old Omar Harrinanan, a blind student of Bon Air Secondary School, his disability was only one of the many challenges he has had to overcome this past year to succeed in his CSEC exams. Harrinanan achieved passes in eight subjects, receiving grade twos in English A and Spanish, grade ones in mathematics, human and social biology, accounts, and social studies and distinctions in information technology and principles of business.
Harrinanan, in a candid interview with Newsday, has said that he does not allow others to define him based on his disability and believes, despite his resounding success, he is no different or any more special than the thousands of students across the region who have overcome personal tragedy to achieve success.
[caption id="attachment_921102" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Omar Harrinanan praised his teachers treatment at the Bon Air Secondary. They were very accommodating and insisted his classmates treat him as they would any other student. "I had great teachers. They really worked with me," he says. -[/caption]
“Once you didn’t give up on yourself, you did great,” he says to all his CSEC comrades. “For all the students who wrote this year, no one outside of our year group can begin to comprehend what we went through academically, emotionally and mentally. It was so different. They would try to compare us to past years, but they would not understand what we went through.
“In my humble opinion, grades do not matter and they do not determine who a person is. Pass or fail, once you decided this year not to give up on yourself, against all odds, you have succeeded at life.”
The road to CXC
Harrinanan attended the School for the Blind for seven years before sitting his Secondary Entrance Examination (SEA) at 16 and attending Bon Air Secondary. He spoke highly of his treatment at the school, saying his teachers are very accommodating and insisted his classmates treat him as they would any other student.
“I had great teachers. They really worked with me. One thing I hate as a pers
