Gov’t advancing Caribbean Diagnostics Centre for special needs students – Min Manickchand

– as $20M aquatic therapy pool commissioned at Turkeyen

Years following the stalling of a planned Caribbean Diagnostics Facility, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government is looking to provide additional support to advance this project.
This was announced on Saturday, while an aquatic therapy pool was being commissioned.
During a brief ceremony, the Ministry of Education commissioned the Edward Mohammed Pool at the Regional Special Education Needs and Disability Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, located on the grounds of the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE). The pool will be used for therapy for the hundreds of students with disabilities at the centre.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand, who was on hand to inaugurate the pool, explained the backstory of the centre. According to her, the centre was supposed to have been built and services launched under the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government, but things went awry.

“This facility here, which is why it was chosen for the school, is actually a Caribbean Diagnostics and Treatment centre. What happened is the Cubans had helped us establish this programme with officers, who helped us in Guyana. Sometime around 2016. This was supposed to blossom into a Caribbean Diagnostics.”
“In fact, that is the agreement we signed with the Cubans. A Caribbean Diagnostics Centre where children from across the Caribbean would come here, get diagnosed and get treated. And unfortunately, the then government did not advance that programme. So, we’re now doing that, to try and ensure that this facility has the human resources we need, like speech therapists, physios and psychologists and other diagnostic people.”
The Minister recounted the progress the Ministry has made so far since 2020, with the Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) programme. According to the Minister, these changes include establishing almost a dozen learning spaces across the country, for students with special needs.
“And so what have we done in the last three years? We appointed an Assistant Chief Education Officer for SEND, Keon Cheong. We have a special Education Officer, in the person of Nikoya. So that’s a whole department set aside to look after the needs of special education learners.”

“We have created and established at the Cyril Potter College of Education, our sole teacher training facility, a new programme, an Associate Degree in special education needs. We have now, 49 learners, 49 student teachers, who are on that programme, who are going to, in two years, hold an associate degree,” Manickchand further said.
According to Manickchand, this associate degree will equip them to help look after the special education needs of children. When it comes to the Guyana Online Academy of Learning (GOAL), 150 persons have so far graduated with a Bachelor’s in Special Education.
Meanwhile, Teddy Mohammed, the donor behind the construction of the pool estimated to have cost US$100,000, explained what motivated him towards this philanthropic act. The pool is named after Terry’s son Edward, while funds for the pool came from the family’s bookstore, Mohammed’s Bookstore in Trinidad and Tobago.

“The swimming pool was all my wife’s and mine idea, because being a Muslim, my second wife had a baby for me. Unfortunately, the retina was damaged. And they never had any physical facilities for him in Trinidad. So, we thought, we’d teach him to swim,” Mohammed further said.
“With that, he learned to swim. And boy, he lives with his mother in Miami. And he will jump out into the ocean and swim. With that in mind, I wanted to know what I could do for all the Guyanese children. After discussing the same idea with the Minister, we came up with the idea. And now it’s a reality.” (G-3)