UG to increase special education research

The University of Guyana (UG) plans to ramp up its Special Ed research efforts this year, in an effort to provide better care to children living with mental disabilities.
Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor Paloma Mohamed-Martin has said that the initiative will play a crucial role in ensuring children with special needs are catered for while efforts are still ongoing to address the mental health practitioner shortage in Guyana.
The research will be conducted at the University’s Centre for Excellence in Early Childhood Teaching and Learning, which was commissioned in 2022.
Staff at the facility currently cater for over 102 young learners, 26 of whom require additional education needs.
According to Mohamed-Martin, the teachers there monitor the behavioural habits of children living with learning disabilities, such as autism and dyslexia, and record them as a part of research.
The information is then vetted by mental health specialists to be incorporated into teaching programmes being offered by the UG in collaboration with the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE).
She explained that a total of two reports are filed monthly, however, this number will increase this year, as efforts are ongoing to better equip teachers in training, with the skills need to provide proper care to children with special needs.
“That school was just internationally certified by a Canadian international agency…but it’s also a research centre so a lot of the work on early childhood is coming out of that centre and they’re published…on what they’re learning about autism in our context, the treatment of autism, other kinds of dyslexia, other kinds of learning disabilities among small children. And of course, they are working very closely with Cyril Potter because we train our Special Ed teachers in some regard in that school,” Mohamed-Martin explained.
The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) reported in 2014 that Guyana’s healthcare system is short of approximately 700 to 900 mental health practitioners.
Vice Chancellor Mohamed-Martin said UG has produced over 300 psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers through its College for Behavioural Sciences and Research, over the years to address the shortage.
However, she noted that a large number of UG graduates are conducting private practice, given that Guyana lacks the necessary facilities for them to work in the public sector.
While this issue is being addressed by the Ministry of Health, Mohamed-Martin said UG will continue to play its part in ensuring more equipped persons enter the field.
“You have to have people to debrief, recording, confidentiality, you have to have look after these people after you diagnose you know, all kinds of things…we’re doing the training, they’re doing the systems part. You know, getting the facilities ready and so on,” Mohamed-Martin stated.

Centre for Excellence
The Centre for Excellence in Early Childhood Teaching and Learning is funded by the Government and the Caribbean Development Bank, through the Basic Needs Trust Fund Guyana. The $161 million facility is equipped with all the amenities needed by learners and early childhood practitioners and caregivers. The building was also designed to accommodate differently-abled learners.
At the launching ceremony, Education Minister Priya Manickchand in her remarks, said that Guyana has the highest nursery enrolment rate in the Commonwealth, as such, the investment is fitting since Guyana and the Caribbean can learn from practices which will be implemented.
In this regard, she posited that the centre will not only contribute to the best start to life, it will also facilitate and foster a holistic, inclusive approach to improving early childhood development, as well as enhance the knowledge and competencies of early childhood development practitioners, researchers, parents and other caregivers.