Before you proceed, make sure you pay special attention to the way the small plastic part that covers the radiator fins is held in place. You will need to know how it attaches when you reassemble the laptop.
You do not need to actually remove the part at this time. It is held in place by the rest of the back cover and will fall off when back cover is removed in the next step.
To start removing the speaker cover, use your finger to lift up on the exposed corner of the black speaker cover, located near the bottom left corner of the screen.
Slowly pull the speaker cover off from left to right, making sure it snaps off little by little.
You only need to remove the 2 screws in the battery compartment to complete this replacement. The student may be brilliant but he sure enjoys doing unnecessarily long, overly complex, and potentially damaging tasks. ;-)