Teachers Educated on Special Needs Students

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Education

Thursday, 09 February 2012 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua St John's - Educators from public and private schools were sensitized on Wednesday about the fundamentals of “Special Educational Needs” during a seminar organised by the Special Education Council (SEC).

Declaring the one-day workshop open, Minister of Education, Youth, Sports & Gender Affairs Dr Jacqui Quinn-Leandro noted that the school system is only designed for students who learn the normal way. But she pointed that changes are imminent.

“For too long, we have lumped every child into the same pot as one homogenous group, when they are actually a rich and diverse mélange of varying abilities, strengths, weaknesses, intuitions and cognitions," she said. "The system, as it has been over decades, has failed too many, and this seminar is an attempt to begin to right that wrong."

She said special needs children are constantly misdiagnosed and misunderstood, and while the SEC aims to sensitize the public at large about special needs, it must first begin with educators, who should be aware of types of learning challenges and then train their counterparts, in an effort to reach out to those special needs students.

Director of Education Jacintha Pringle told participants that her ministry is aware that "no child must be left behind" and adequate measures must be implemented to accommodate special needs children. She said the delay in not catering to their unique needs is partly due to the need for more human and financial resources.

According to Pringle, “The Ministry of Education recognizes the importance that must be placed on special needs education, if we are serious about education for all. Children with learning difficulties require more of our time. Of course, we are going to need more teachers trained in special needs in the classroom."

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Facilitators at Wednesday’s special educational needs seminar discussed topics including meeting the needs of students at the school for the deaf, meeting the needs of the visually impaired, the gift of dyslexia, and meeting the needs of students at Adele School.

This is the Special Education Council’s (SEC) first sensitization programme, and future plans are to engage parents and other technicians, and stakeholders of education.

The SEC was launched in November 2011, and is comprised of five members - Doristeen Etinoff (chairperson), Desiree Antonio, Jackie Butler, Dotsie Isaac-Gellizeau, and retired educator Mazie Southwell. The Council has been tasked with analyzing needs and available resources; allowing the ministry to gauge where it is, where it needs to go; and charting the way forward in the most practical sense to maximize the potential of special needs students.

Among the major priority areas for the SEC is the construction of a diagnostic laboratory, where students’ learning difficulties will be properly assessed.

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