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FOR A LONG time it has been clear that special-needs students in this country face an uphill battle. Not only must they deal with the ordinary lifestyle complications raised by their situation, they must contend with a state-run education system that has not done a good job of facilitating them.
This is frequently highlighted in this newspapers by columnist Dr Radica Mahase, head of an NGO that works for people with autism.
But the failures highlighted at a parliamentary committee hearing on Wednesday went beyond the usual picture of neglect. They suggested an alarming level of ineptitude, with even the officials tasked with overseeing the system being driven to speechlessness when confronted with the reality of the myriad problems facing special-needs students.
“I am just stumped,” said Education Ministry permanent secretary Lenor Baptiste-Simmons at one point during the proceedings of the Joint Select Committee on Social Services. She was responding to a claim by Princess Elizabeth School principal Gerard Frederick, who gave evidence suggesting students from the school have been having difficulty doing the most basic thing: registering for the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam.
Independent Senator Paul Richards said that complaint was not unfamiliar to him. He recommended an investigation, an investigation that was welcomed by Ms Baptiste-Simmons, who, unlike Mr Richards, appeared to be learning of these issues for the first time.
The hapless reaction from such a senior official does not bode well. Nor does the disclosure that the ministry’s student support services division has never been fully staffed, fluctuating between 20 and 50 per cent over the last two decades.
At the same time, the ministry’s statistics indicate that at least 3,365 students have been referred to the under-staffed division as having special needs. That number, for some, woefully underplays the situation.
“There also needs to be more integration of children who have intellectual disabilities and disabilities like being hearing-impaired and sight-impaired, that have nothing to do with the functioning of their intellectual capacity to learn,” said Down Syndrome Family Network board member Lisa Ghany. “I feel the existing system is failing our children with special needs.”
In addition to the lack of resources and gaps in oversight at the very top of the system, the pandemic has opened a hornet’s nest of new issues.
Special-needs children and the general student population as a whole face the invidious effects of having to learn online. In the case of the former, there are very immediate health risks such as increased seizures. And global studies suggest all students are falling months behind owing to the switch. Even teachers are getting burned out.
In this regard, Public Administration Minister Allyson West on Tuesday painted a rosy picture of the Government and private sector doing well to plug gaps in the supply of laptops.
But as Wednesday’s hearing shows, devices are just the bare minimum when it comes to the support needed by students.
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