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“Every child has the potential to achieve great results, but this can only be done if knowledgeable methods and techniques are involved in working with these children. A good teacher should be able to work with students with any ability and help that child to overcome the difficulties he or she may be experiencing in learning.”By Leon Suseran Using his life and skills for the benefit of special needs children in Guyana has been the hallmark of Sherwin Anthony Fraser, an Australian-trained Special Education Needs specialist. He has spent years honing his skills in this critical and high demand area in education in Guyana.Sherwin FraserApart from his work with the children at the Ptolemy Reid Rehabilitation Centre in Georgetown and other special needs schools, Fraser has been an advocate for regulations and laws that call on our leaders to enact legislation to make access to public and private buildings easier for persons with disabilities.He is also a teacher employed by the President’s College and an Examiner of the Caribbean Studies subject area. Fraser has also helped to design two new courses for the University of Guyana, courses that would benefit students in gaining crucial knowledge in the area of learning disabilities and special needs.His story is one of working tirelessly in a country where the issues of special needs and persons with disabilities do not come up very often to the discussion table. But this certainly does not stop him from making his voice heard through his work.Education & Career choicesHis early education took place at Mazaruni where he attended Sibley Hall Nursery followed by Mazaruni Primary. His father, Gerald Fraser, was stationed at Mazaruni Prison at that time.By age 9, Sherwin moved to West Coast Berbice where he completed his primary education at Number 29 Primary before pursuing studies at Bygeval Secondary. He continued to excel in various subject areas, gaining distinctions. In 1991, Fraser was the top CXC student at the school.He related that in 1992, he had a desire to become enlisted in the Guyana Defence Force “but by the time the process began, I changed my mind…Later, I was approached by one of my cousins, Emelda Fraser, to serve as a replacement teacher for her since she was leaving the country.”During graduation at The University of Queensland (Australia) in 2012He then began to teach at Bush Lot Secondary in West Berbice, after which he pursued his Trained Teacher’s Certificate at the Cyril Potter College of Education. “By this time, my passion for education and my insatiable desire for knowledge had increased greatly that my focus was set on becoming an education specialist.”In 1999, he started to teach at St. Rose’s High and remained there until 2003. Afterwards, he was employed as a part-time teacher at President’s College, but Mr. Stanley Lewis, “the principal back then was so impressed with my work that he made efforts to have me on the staff as a full-time teacher.”During this period, Fraser pursued a Bachelor of Arts Degree at the University of Guyana after which he graduated in 2004, and then pursued a Post-Graduate Diploma in International Studies and continued teaching.“Many of my colleagues had been migrating to the UK, US and Bahamas, but I continued to teach.”How it all beganFraser’s work with children with disabilities and special needs all began with him volunteering in 2005 at the Drop-in Centre at Brickdam.“Between 2005 and 2006, I had given hundreds of hours in voluntary work with these students. Many of the students who were housed at the centre were unable to read, write or compute, and the task of providing remedial instruction was at first very challenging, given the fact that these students had multiple [learning] difficulties.” Fraser’s task, though, became easier when he employed a number of teaching strategies, including rehearsal, and cooperative learning using a Learner Centred Approach (LCA).“They were able to perform tasks that proved difficult prior to the teachings they received,” he asserted. “As a young teacher, your greatest satisfaction is working with a child whose percentage is below average and helping him or her to a level where the percentage is above average.”“Every child has the potential to achieve great results, but this can only be done if knowledgeable methods and techniques are involved in working with these children. A good teacher should be able to work with students with any ability and help that child to overcome the difficulties he or she may be experiencing in learning.”A passion for helpingWorking with those children moved him in a big way to wanting to educate himself further in the field so that he could have helped those children in a better way. He left these shores a short time after to pursue a Master of Educational Studies Degree with specializations in Behaviour Management and Inclusive and Special Needs from The University of Queensland, Australia. He graduated last year. He recalled some good memories studying and working in Australia.Fraser, to date, is the only person in Guyana with such specialization in the two fields, in a single Master’s Degree. And his work has intensified with the Ptolemy Reid Centre and with special needs children across Guyana. After his return from Australia, the children there “have benefitted tremendously from the interventions conducted.”Working with kids at the Ptolemy Reid Rehab Centre earlier this year.The primary focus at the centre is working with children who have Down’s syndrome and Cerebral Palsy.“I have been able, over the last year, to help a number of students, particularly those who remain at the Centre on weekends,Kurt Warner Cardinals Throwback Jersey, to make significant progress in the areas of phonics, writing, and self-regulation.” He added, though,Terrell Davis Denver Broncos Throwback Jersey, that the biggest challenge for teachers in special needs schools across Guyana “remains training in this specialized area to effectively deal with children who have special needs.”“As such, there should be a shift from best results (exams) to educational outcomes that are enduring, such as skills development. The capacity of teachers to become more effective in the special education classroom should be enhanced.Quality education hinges on effectiveness and effective teachers who develop a mastery of the skills needed to transform the lives of those to whom they have a duty of care. Good teachers’ support and motivation are pivotal to the success of students.”TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCEIn 2002, Fraser was invited to serve as an Assistant Examiner for the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) script-marking exercise in Jamaica.“I was the only Guyanese on the marking team for Caribbean Studies at that time and as a new subject,Brooks Robinson Orioles Throwback Jersey, it was still evolving in Guyana.”A few years later, he was promoted to Examiner, and continues to serve in that capacity to this day. Currently, he is the longest-serving Examiner for Guyana in Caribbean Studies,Cris Carter Vikings Throwback Jersey, which is now the subject with the largest entries at the CAPE.His impressive performance continued to catch the eyes of specialists and in 2010, he was selected to serve as a Panel Member for the CXC Syllabus Review Committee for the CAPE Caribbean Studies. The reviewing process,John Havlicek Celtics Throwback Jersey, which took place in Barbados,Cam Neely Bruins Throwback Jersey, comprised prominent teachers from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and St. Vincent “and I was the only representative from Guyana.” The new syllabus was completed in 2012 and students were first tested on it during the past CXC Exams.Fraser is currently co-authoring a CAPE Caribbean Studies book which is approaching press date very soon. The text is being published by one of the UK’s leading educational publishers, Nelson Thornes. Upon publication, the book will be available across the Caribbean, especially to students preparing for the CAPE, and it will be accompanied by a CD loaded with exam-type questions and answers for Caribbean Studies.With other facilitators and participants at the Trafalgar/Union Community Special Needs/Children with Disability Workshop in August 2013.He was also involved in designing and preparing the Course Description for the new UG Course ESE 4101—Autism and Specific Learning Disabilities for the School of Education from November 2012 to January 2013.Fraser has also served as a Project Coordinator for the Literacy and Numeracy intervention programme for children with Learning Difficulties for students of the Trafalgar/Union Community on the West Coast of Berbice. That programme took off in August of this year. The project was funded by the Australian Government and utilized a three-tier model of intervention to arrest poor performances in Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia.“This historic programme in Guyana utilized a model in helping students who were underperforming and was a tremendous success. Many students who were unable to identify letters, read and perform basic problem-solving tasks prior to the programme were doing so by the end of the programme.”Today, Fraser is a member of the International Association of Special Education (IASE) based in Washington DC. He also communicates regularly with the Down’s syndrome Association and Autism Awareness Association, both based in Australia. He plans to join the Commonwealth Association of Public Administration and Management, an international body based in Ottawa, Canada.ACCOMMODATION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES“Given the local scenario in Guyana, two fundamental issues affect the development of people with disabilities,” he related. The attitudes towards to those who have disabilities and equal access to the physical space were the issues he outlined.“There is an urgent need for the adoption of the Universal Design concept to our buildings, parks and other public places so that people with disabilities can enjoy the same rights, privileges and access as other individuals. Access to all parts of a school should be possible for children with disabilities, and as such, for inclusive education practices to work, schools should be re-designed; curriculum modified; and more specialist teachers and learning support specialists placed in the school system.”Fraser agrees that there should be no discrimination whatsoever on the basis of race, class, gender, religion, ethnicity and especially disability.“In some Caribbean countries, national policies focusing on people with disability remain unimplemented.”Article 9 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, he reminded, mandates countries to “ensure that people with disabilities have the same access to services such as transportation,Dan Hampton Bears Throwback Jersey, information and communication technologies, health and education, among others.”Many countries,Dale Murphy Braves Throwback Jersey, including Guyana, are signatories to that convention which was established in 2006 and ratified in 2007.“Many people with disabilities are unable to access employment, recreational facilities and other services and this affects the lives of many individuals. A good starting point in the mitigation of this problem is that every organization and institution in Guyana, including schools,Ted Williams Red Sox Throwback Jersey, should develop minimum standards for dealing with people with disabilities.”He said that currently, many agencies and organizations in Guyana “do not have systems in place to effectively deal with people with disabilities, particularly those with profound disabilities.”A young, vibrant Guyanese and advocate for the voiceless, how does he find the time to do all this and more, on a daily basis?“Time management…I manage my time and plan my activities so that I am able to complete tasks on time. Organizational skills…This is something I am able to master when doing work and being able to organize my tasks, it becomes easier to complete them; and commitment and dedication…I have a great deal of self-motivation and this enables me to stay on tasks to ensure that the objectives are achieved. I am also committed to whatever I do.”Passionate about what he does, on a purely volunteer basis, surely Guyana can move forward in the areas of special needs education and in the framework of persons with disabilities with the continued contributions and application of the skills of those like this week’s ‘Special Person’, Sherwin Fraser.