Saint Lucia: New special needs education policy gives students helping hand

The department of education has put forward a special needs education policy and strategy to provide guidance to the government of Saint Lucia. The programme intends to bring the system up to date with more modern fittings, strategies and requirements.

The first of many upcoming consultations took place through a zoom meeting which was streamed on Youtube and is still freely available for anyone interested. The consultation spearheaded by Murina Julian-Joseph, the acting education officer for district I, was scheduled to discuss any concerns, queries, doubts or inputs in relation to the new special needs education strategy & policy. Amongst other government sourced data, the document analysis claims that:

• There are five special schools with a student population of 348 and 72 teachers, 62% of students in special schools are males.
• Among the students in special schools, learning disabilities/mentally challenged/autistic accounted for the greatest prevalence (1.03) compared to multiple handicaps (0.18) and visually impaired (0.16)
• Grade repetition at the primary school level was prolific across grade levels but is especially remarkable at K, grades 1 and 3, which accounted for 78% of all repetition in the 2019/2020 academic year.

The strategy very heavily leans on allocating more funds to create more inclusive access to educational institutions including ramps, textured surfaces, rails etc. to “ensure safety and convenience of accessing amenities”.

There is also a target to establish an “early identification system, alongside referral and assessment mechanisms to identify screening, placement, intervention and support needs of learners at the earliest stage.”

The data presented suggests that schools are often too late to recognise and check of learning disabilities in their students, leading the way to potential mental health concerns for children. For this reason, the policy also suggests the implementation of teacher’s aides in school.

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The policy is built off of data and analysis, the ministry claims “The policy is underpinned by a rights-based, non-discriminatory philosophy that equally values the presence, participation, and contribution of all children regardless of where they are on the abilities spectrum.”

Common practice suggests that students take the common entrance examination after primary school to determine which secondary school they will attend, unfortunately only about 30% of students actually go on for secondary education.

This draft is a core contribution of the 2021-2026 Educational Sector Strategy which aims to guide the government through the department of education.

During the consultation the organisers claimed that the ministry of education is cognisant to the fact that they have fallen short in this sector in the past and wish to remedy it with this new strategy and policy.