THE Ministry of Education, Monday, hosted its fourth consultation on special needs with stakeholders from various governmental and non-governmental organisations at Regency Hotel, on Hadfield Street, Georgetown.

Speaking at the forum, Minister of Education, Ms. Priya Manickchand said in everything the ministry wants to do, it first listens to the persons who are integrally involved.
“We are very keen to hear from all stakeholders, persons with disabilities, as well as persons who work with persons with disabilities. We want to hear from you about how it is we can make our education system better to cater for persons living with disabilities,” she emphasised.
Manickchand explained that, not only are these consultations a part of a five-year plan, but they will also be a part of the ministry’s strategic plan.
“So that persons all over the world, when they come to help us, they, usually, look at our strategic plan to see in which areas they can give assistance and this is one of the areas we are going to be including in that plan,” she pointed out.
The ministry previously held three such consultations, one each in Georgetown, Linden and New Amsterdam and the minister remarked: “It is amazing how much we’ve heard, very very small things that will make a huge difference.”
She added that the ministry intends to put all into a plan before the end of this year, so that they will begin the new year not only with an action plan, but also with a budget for it.
Minister Manickchand said, when they speak about inclusive education in Guyana, it comes down to one of the groups that is not yet fully included and that is the group with persons living with disabilities.
First step
She assured, though, that the consultations are the first step the ministry is taking to change this.
Meanwhile, Chief Planning Officer within the Ministry, Mrs. Evelyn Hamilton, made a presentation based on a summary of the views and suggestions from the three previous consultations.
In it she classified the issues raised by participants into eight categories, training, classroom, parental, medical, general and curriculum, as well as physical conditions in schools and matters related to teachers and ministry officials.
She included the need for sign language training for teachers, the lack of appropriate learning/teaching material for children with special education needs, lack of appropriate furniture in schools, the inadequate promotional opportunities for special education needs teachers and how parental problems can affect the child’s ability to benefit from education.
In addition to presenting a summary and solutions previously identified, Hamilton said the reason for the exercise was to give another opportunity to stakeholders to include any problems that might have been left out and allow them to prioritise and recommend additional strategies.
Among those raised was the need for physical therapy for children living with disabilities, training for deaf children from as early as the nursery level, and the provision of large print text books or audio books for low vision students.
In attendance too, were Chief Education Officer, Mr. Olato Sam; Assistant Chief Education Officer, Mrs. Doodmattie Singh; other ministry officials, as well as representatives from the David Rose School for the Handicapped, Step by Step Foundation and United Women for special Children.