THE Ministry of Education, with support from the Periwinkle Cancer Club, is helping children suffering from cancer to continue their education by providing two teachers who work with cancer patients in the Children’s Ward of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.The Government Information Agency (GINA) reported Wednesday that Chief Education Officer (ag) in the Ministry of Education, Marcel Hutson, said recently that this intervention is among several that the ministry is undertaking to ensure children with special needs are educated.
Hutson said further that there is a unit at the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) that addresses Special Education Needs (SEN). The unit provides testing for dyslexia and also provides instructions on the needs of these students and what support the ministry can give.
EARLY SCREENING
In addition, GINA said, the Education Ministry has also been working with the Ministry of Public Health to screen students at an early age for hearing and seeing disabilities that may hinder their performance in the school system.
According to Hutson, the ministry has been supplying the spectacles and hearing aids to children who need these aids. The ministry has also provided the David Rose School for the disabled with a bus to take the students to and from home to school.
The Education Ministry has been working also to ensure that children with various disabilities have equitable access to education. “These children have the potential, it is just that they have some mitigating circumstances. That does not mean that an avenue or outlet should not be provided for them to be successful in life,” Hutson said.
Meanwhile, the government has been working to reform the education system so as to better prepare them to play an active role in Guyana’s development, GINA added.