nclusive education has been given a great deal of prominence in the Ministry of Education as part of its intent to foster improvement and expansion of the educational services offered in Guyana. This notion was disclosed by Chief Education Officer, Mr. Olato Sam, recently. However, he asserted that this area demands greater focus largely because of the paucity of available options for various under-served groups within the society. As a result, Special Needs Education in particular is seen as one of the main points of focus for the Ministry’s Strategic Plan. He emphasized the importance of ensuring that a clear policy in this area is developed for the education system and more importantly that the range of required services are given special attention for improvement.
“To this end we have developed a Special Needs Education Unit within the National Centre for Resource Development (NCERD) that is now mandated to manage the implementation of our policies and plans and to further our broad objectives for greater inclusiveness.”
The new department, according to Sam, is currently being headed by Ms. Karen Hall.
In fact, he disclosed that Special Needs Education has now been established as an area of specialization at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) so that “we can now have more teachers adequately prepared with the requisite skills and knowledge to further these efforts in our school system.”
In this regard, he said that there is need for this area to be afforded more support and focus even as he amplified that the education system needs to be retooled, restructured and reoriented to ensure that inclusivity is embedded into the everyday practice and not be regarded as an adjunct programme. “That means the streaming of a range of services currently placed within the category of Special Needs is inevitable if we are to meet our mandate of modernizing the education system. We have a long way to go but it is our wish that centers like the Open Doors will be more intricately linked to the standard operation structures within the Ministry of Education, receiving the required resources and support to ensure their viability,” Sam noted.
Moreover, the Chief Education Officer alluded to the genuine need that exist both human and material resources needed to meet the outlined objectives of the Ministry. “At times we at the Ministry of Education feel a bit overwhelmed, largely because we are all too cognizant of the limited and material resources available…” But according to Sam this shortcoming does not in any way daunt the spirit of officials within the Ministry, adding that in fact “what is compels us to do is to forge stronger partnerships with entities which can assist filling the gaps where necessary. Our experiences have taught us that such partnerships work effectively and the success of the Open Doors Centre is one glaring example of that.”
It was just recently, too, that head of the Open Doors Center, Mr. Arthur Lewis, named the introduction of Continuous Vocation Education and Training (CVET) as a strategic move to gaining the support of the Education Ministry in order to secure trained staffers and other assistance to aid the delivery of education to disabled trainees. It is Lewis’s belief that once the operation of the entity, which is designed to cater to the educational needs of persons with disability, is on par with the requirements of the Ministry of Education much needed assistance will be forthcoming.
He shared his optimism that the officials in the Ministry will recognize that the organization is in dire need of persons with a passion for education and development to help solve its existing staffing problem. “We need persons who have a passion for training and education to get on board with us. At the moment most of our staffers are on part-time employment. We need persons to come on board as full time instructors…” he insisted.
The Open Doors Centre got on stream in 2001 as a project and three years later it was handed over to the Ministry of Health after which it was transformed to a full-fledged educational institution. The entity has as its aim the need to promote and help improve the lives of young persons with disability.
Source: https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2011/12/12/education-ministry-promotes-inclusive-education/