There is a big difference between being disabled and being disheartened. And clearly, although he was disabled by cerebral palsy, 18-year-old Kemar Cummings was not disheartened as he went through the secondary level education system at Mona High School.

As THE STAR reported on Wednesday, Cummings, despite using a walker and having a speech impediment, passed seven CXC subjects, gaining five distinctions

This is no mean achievement for anyone much less someone who, as his father said, took half an hour to write something that would take another student five minutes.

But after finishing fifth form in such impressive fashion, Cummings must have been disheartened when he could not find a sixth form to attend, simply because the steps to higher education really were steps - the ones that led to the second level of school buildings that he would not have been able to climb.

Although Cummings has found a school in Quality Academics, his parents paying the very high fee of $100,000 for him to go to the private institution, it is more than quality which is at stake here.

There is also the matter of prestige, not a small consideration in a country fascinated with class and prestige. The fact is that Cummings did not go to his preferred choices of schools, because he did not qualify, but because in someone's eye, he is a misfit. This is unacceptable. A physically challenged person like Cummings who has achieved more than what was expected of him should be celebrated. Instead there are no facilities to accommodate him.

That is so, so sad.