More “Special Needs Education” classrooms to be opened by year-end – Min Manickchand

Later this year, the government will be commissioning several special education classrooms in the public school system, aimed at assisting students who may experience difficulties with the traditional methods of learning.
Special education classrooms allow students to have more one-on-one sessions with educators and access appropriate learning materials tailored to help them enhance their learning capability and process information within a short time.
Some 12 such facilities have already been commissioned across the country and several more are currently being established and outfitted.

This was disclosed by Education Minister Priya Manickchand during a recent broadcast of the Guyana Dialogue programme.
According to Manickchand, the initiative is part of efforts to ensure that more children with special education needs are now able to access education in a mainstream school setting.
She added that disability is one of the most serious barriers to education across the globe and these classrooms will ensure that children access education regardless of gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, or circumstances.
“When we talk about inclusive education, we are more talking about special needs students being included in the holistic education system so that they could receive an education that allows them to be competitive in whatever field they choose,” Minister Manickchand said.
The Special Education Needs Unit was established to provide support for students with learning challenges. It is an arm of the Education Ministry, giving guidance on education policies and promoting equal opportunities despite disparities. Some services include continuous professional development training for special needs teachers.
In this regard, over 706 teachers have been trained in nine of the 10 Administrative Regions and Georgetown. These training sessions are targeted based on what officers uncover during visits, or from information provided by teachers.

Literacy
Meanwhile, in a bid to improve literacy among the school-aged population, the Education Ministry will be launching Libraries of novels in primary schools across the country.
The programme which will commence in the new school term aims to provide students with the necessary tools to read and enhance their critical thinking skills at an early age.
Manickchand noted that this intervention is vital given that illiteracy among students remains one of the biggest problems plaguing Guyana’s education sector, leading to disparity in academic performance and National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) examination results.
“We really want to do that across the country to make sure we have the library spaces and library materials that children can benefit from, with a view of making sure that in four years every single child could read at an appropriate grade level except they have a learning disability which we will identify and use our special needs classroom to try to correct,” she explained.
She added that while Guyana is pushing the use of technology in schools, literacy among learners is equally important.