WITH cerebral palsy affecting the movement of his limbs, Navin Nair needs a walking aid to get around.

He also has difficulties writing.

But the 21-year-old MDIS international business student is unfazed by his disabilities.

He takes the MRT to school and works extra hard to keep up with his classmates.

It helps that MDIS has a video streaming facility (see report below), so that Navin is able to review his lectures, especially those in which his lecturers raise important points.

Navin, who is now pursuing an advanced diploma, said: 'My writing speed is slow.

'When the teacher mentions key points, I'm not able to copy them down at the same pace as the class.

'Since it's recorded on the video, I can go home and play back the video to take down the key points. Then when I come to the next lesson, I'll be able to follow what's being said in class.'

Navin hopes to pursue his degree after completing the advanced diploma.

He has already surpassed his parents' expectations of him.

His father is a structural engineer and his mother a clerk in the civil service. He has a 23-year-old elder brother, who is in NUS.

He said with a laugh: 'None of my family members actually thought I'd even be fit for mainstream education.'

He has had cerebral palsy since birth, a brain disorder which affects a person's body movements.

At one stage during his childhood, he said, he could not even sit up in bed. He had to be supported all the time.

But he improved tremendously after undergoing years of physiotherapy.

He now walks with an unsteady gait and can get around with the help of a rollator (a walking support with wheels).

A movement that most people take for granted, such as holding a pen, took Navin a lot of practising to master.

He said: 'Every small thing requires exercise and practice.

'Even for writing I had to go through a tedious amount of practice, over years, just to improve.'

He had to take an IQ test when he was 6 to get into mainstream school.

He did well enough to go to primary school, instead of a special school.

He went to Si Ling Secondary, in Marsiling, which is near his five-room flat in Woodlands.

He said he has had a maid since birth. When he was younger, she accompanied him to school to help him around, especially when he had to go to the toilet.

CLASSMATES HELPED

In secondary school, he said, four of his classmates offered to learn from voluntary welfare organisations' therapists how to help him move about.

Apart from getting a D7 in mathematics, Navin scored As and Bs for his O-level subjects.

He scored A1 for his mother tongue, Tamil, and A2 for English.

When he first went to MDIS' Dhoby Ghaut campus to sign up for a diploma programme, he was advised to first try getting around the school's Uni Campus at Stirling Road, where his classes will be held, to see if he could manage it.

So he spent about an hour at the Stirling Road campus, before deciding that he would have no problems getting around with his rollator.

My parents' first reaction: 'Are you crazy? You are going all the way to Queenstown to study. Can you manage it or not?'

But he was determined to further his studies and signed up.

Since then, Navin has been attending classes regularly.

Now, he joked, his parents are worried that he has not been doing his physiotherapy.

His answer to them: 'But I cannot help it, I have homework to do.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on June 19, 2008.