Government mulls setting up disability assessment centre

The Special Needs Unit of the Education Ministry and several international and non- governmental organisations have begun discussing the establishment of a centre for children with special needs.

National Coordinator for Special Needs Education, Karen Hall, said that government is looking to develop such a centre, but the cost is exorbitant.

Hall told Guyana Times International in a recent interview that she hopes to see donor agencies provide the needed support to at least establish one central centre in the city. If that is done, several service points can be established across the country in different regions.

“We have another screening programme to do with the vision and hearing, and it has been pretty successful; but (for) the others, we haven’t had a clearly identifiable assessment strategy,” she stated.

The education official pointed out that her unit is looking at developing some strategies that exist and have been successful in other countries, and are relatively inexpensive and less technologically cumbersome to implement. In this way, early intervention can be taken to help to plan for each child during their school life.

Questioned about the training for teachers at the CPCE, Hall said the teachers’ training college has been doing its part. She said, “I spoke with the principal there and she said they are doing an introductory module to every programme they have; so whether a teacher does science and specialises in secondary or early childhood, everyone will be introduced to the special needs programme at college”. Responsibility lies in the National Centre for Educational Resource Development to ensure that teachers are exposed to different specialised training.

The Special Needs Education Unit currently works with head teachers of all special needs schools once every month, and more than 75 teachers are upgraded every quarter.

Meanwhile, teachers from more than 15 special needs schools underwent training in relation to teaching on HIV and AIDS. The curriculum developed was adopted from the State of New York in the United States, and will be used to teach children in the new academic term. Through the programme, special needs schools will also be provided with teaching aids.

The Special Needs Unit is also looking to pilot the programme for one year in schools in Georgetown and in regions Four, Six and 10.