The Ministry of Education is implementing several initiatives aimed at better supporting students with special needs, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education Sandra Husbands told the House of Assembly on Tuesday.
During debate on the National Policy for Improving the Lives of Persons with Disabilities, Husbands announced that several projects had already been greenlit to bring further equity to the education sector for students with disabilities.
One of these initiatives includes efforts by the ministry to enhance teachers’ skills, enabling them to adapt their teaching methods to better support students with special needs.
“[We want] to change and transform the teaching abilities of our instructors to ensure that they are skilled and resourced persons who are specially taught to teach our special needs children. So a consultancy was set up in order for us to implement a pilot; this pilot will be executed and is in process at five treatment schools,” Husbands said.
“The idea is that we will employ a special education services provider to do the necessary needs assessment, to develop an appropriate treatment plan, and then after implementing that pilot and assessing the results, we will be able to identify the best practices that work for our children with special needs, and look to spread them to all schools.”
The introduction of various assistive technologies and the development of specialised teaching plans to better cater to individual students with different needs are also on the cards.
“If we don’t develop a plan that is specific to each child, we will not be able to help them to maximise that potential. That plan will guide all of the educators who engage that child within that school system. Part of what that will help us do is to establish clear routines that are suited to those children, develop appropriate student goals that are appropriate for each child, as well as ensure teachers are trained in positive behaviour management within that school setting,” the minister said.
She reported that this year, 23 teachers graduated from Erdiston Teachers Training College with special needs training, and 123 teachers went through literacy training to better assist special needs children with improving their literacy levels. An additional 50 teachers are on the brink of completing their training in December to better assist autistic children in the classroom.
Husbands noted that although the ministry has increased the number of children being tested annually for autism, there is still a waiting list which she hopes authorities can reduce as quickly as possible.
The minister revealed that 15 inclusive schools have been selected for infrastructural development to better meet the needs of special needs children, with Bayleys, Eagle Hall, Milton Lynch, and St Christopher primary schools already having completed upgrades.
Tertiary institutions have also committed to upgrading their facilities and technology to assist special students, she added.
Husbands said: “What we recognised is that, going forward, all of our schools will have to make provision for the needs of special needs children, and I am happy to report that even yesterday, as we were planning during the Estimates discussion, our tertiary institutions too have identified some of the things that they need to do to ensure that tertiary education is going to be available to people who live with disabilities.
“The Samuel Jackman Prescod [Institute of Technology] is going to be working with the Ministry of Youth and they are developing some tech-voc training that will be made available in schools for people living with disabilities.”
(SB)
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