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He should be getting measured for his uniform and ticking off the long list of items needed for high school. Instead, 11-year-old Jaydan 'Jay Jay' Mothersill sits at home in rural Manchester, tracing letters in an old notebook, pretending he in still in a classroom.

Jay Jay hasn't been to school since he was six. Diagnosed with epilepsy at age four, his life has been defined by sudden seizures -- violent, frequent, and exhausting. His mother, Moya Harriett, says they can strike at any time, often while he's playing outside.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that causes recurring, unprovoked seizures. These seizures result from abnormal electrical activity in the brain and can vary in severity and duration. For Jay Jay, they last up to three minutes -- long enough to leave him drained.

"After the seizure, him weak and tired. Him drop asleep right after," Harriett told THE STAR.

She said she had to pull him from school because the institution that he was attending said they could not accommodate him. With the daunting prospects, his mother decides to keep him at their home in Little Tivoli, located in a section of Prospect in South Manchester.

Still, his curiosity never fades.

"Mommy, gi mi the school something," he says, his small way of holding onto a dream the world seems to have long forgotten.

"The last time Jay Jay go school, he was six," Harriett said of the second of her three children who turns 12 in August.

"The only thing can get him to sit down and nuh move fi the rest of the day is the book and the pencil," she said.

"Him love it. Him ready fi learn."

SIGN FOR CONCERN

Harriett first noticed something was wrong one evening while he was playing.

"Mi see him drop asleep and mi think him tired. Then mi see him a shake up," she recalled.

The initial hospital visit yielded only sinus medication. "We do scan and nothing nuh point to epilepsy," she explained.

"Is when mi carry him to another paediatrician, the doctor finally diagnose him."

The prescribed medication, offered no relief.

"Every time dem increase the dose, it mek him weak, him cya walk, him eye red," she said. "Mi just stop give him it."

Unconvinced by the effectiveness of medical treatment, Harriett has opted to manage the condition herself. She says her inability to find $40,000 for a private psychiatric assessment -- a prerequisite for placement in a special needs school -- has compounded the problem.

"There's a school in Santa Cruz, one hour away," she said. "Another one is in Porus, about 30 minutes, but dem seh mi haffi carry him go psychiatrist first. Not the government one, private, and it cost $40,000."

Unable to attend school because of his epilepsy, Mothersill spends his days at home sketching on sheets of paper. But even moving around their yard can be dangerous. The rocky, uneven ground has caused him to fall several times during seizures. His mother has had to find creative ways to keep him safe.

REASON FOR LOCS

"Mi lock him hair so him get a little cushion. When the seizure come and him drop, at least something deh fi protect him head," Harriett said.

But that is often not sufficient to prevent him for getting cuts.

"Yuh affi have something fi put under him head. But the road rocky, and when him drop, him head move side to side. That's how him get the cuts."

Mothersill has learnt to sense the seizures before they strike. "Sometimes him ago step outside and him just stop and sit down. Him know when it a come," his mother said.

He often finds peace sitting under a nearby tree -- one of the few places he can stay cool. The family has no electricity or running water, a longstanding issue in Prospect where many residents live without basic infrastructure.

Despite the challenges, he still treats each day like a school day.

"Even when mi tired, him still a beg fi mi mark [his book] it like mi a real teacher," Harriett.

With the new school year just over a month way, Harriett is hoping for a miracle that would see her son returning to school for the first time in six years.

"Mi just want him to feel like him matter, like him deserve what the rest get," she said.