The principal of Church Teachers’ College (CTC) in Mandeville, Garth Anderson, in welcoming participants in the 11th Special Education Conference and Workshops at the CTC main campus in Mandeville, decried the poor funding of special needs education and called for the government to properly fund Jamaica’s education system, in such a way that it should cater for all learners.
According to Anderson, the current underfunded areas, specifically in special needs education, is creating cracks that allow learners moving at different pace to be left behind, thus facilitating conditions cultivating crime, violence and the overwhelming social ills that currently dogged the Jamaican society.
Anderson envisioned special education in an ever-evolving environment that requires practitioners to stay abreast of the latest research, technological advancements, and best practices. He believes that it is by fostering a culture of continuous learning and collaboration, that allows the equipped teachers and stakeholders with the necessary tools to make a lasting impact on the lives of the students.
“I believe the elephant in the room is funding to provide the resources, training and support,” said the educator. “Public education for all is for the public good.” Hence, “public education must be primarily funded by the government,” he added. “If the private sector is encouraged, clearly it is welcome, but the primary duty is not from the private sector. According to Anderson, “Public education is for the public good, and what seems to be missing in the equation, is that in all the growth we want to achieve, and the great things we want to get by 2023, cannot be achieved unless we fix the education system.”
Anderson further pointed out that the three main public assessment and intervention centres – The Mico, CTC and Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College – are understaffed and underfunded to effectively fulfil its mandate. “We do not have all the personnel we need, so we are running short at responding to the overwhelming needs out there, including the reports and calls from schools across the island,” he said. ‘
The Educational Assessment and Intervention Centre at CTC has gone as far as the parish of St Thomas, in response to schools needing help, but “the centre is unable to effectively help teachers, to facilitate them, and make sure that their students optimise their potential”, due to personnel shortages. “And, as such, much more must be done by our policymakers to ensure each learner has the ability to optimise his/her potential,” said Dr Anderson.
Another area, undermining special needs education from a broader perspective, is the absence of a clearly defined management process that connects the varied areas with the regional offices and the central ministry of education. “We literally have to endear ourselves to them, and share the information we pick up during the testing process,” said Anderson.
Sharing and correlation of data collected by the assessment centre’s when sent to the ministry of education are not acted upon.“We don’t know what they do with it. There is a kind of haphazard approach to testing, assessing, and finding out what are the needs of learners, so that teachers can better respond to them, instead of getting into a “guess-and-spell” situation. The problem is that “we don’t have a policy that clearly defines what should happen if a student is acting up in a particular way in school; what’s the process?”
Educational assessments come with a cost that is disadvantageous to low-income families to get their children tested. Levelling the educational playfield requires public funding.
President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, Leighton Johnson, supported Anderson’s call for greater funding. He said, “There is the need for greater access to special education centres as there are still parishes that do not have special education facilities.”
Johnson added that “more teachers were needed to acquire the requisite skills and competencies to participate in the assessment process”, with a view of reducing the wait time for assessments, therefore calling for our policymakers to provide the required funding to advance the cause of special education.
Keynote speaker, Carolyn Reid-Brown, associate professor at Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania said that “assessment is not a destination, but a journey, should be a beacon of hope, and vehicle of change.” According to Reid-Brown, the way forward requires an attitude to view assessment for empowerment. This involves investing in training, designing and adapting assessment data, collaboration among educators, parents and leveraging technology. Technology includes the use of artificial intelligence. “It has great potential, but a lot of people seem to be afraid of it. However, we need to embrace it, and look and see what it can do for our students and then utilise it in the classrooms,” she said.
The annual special education conference and workshops began in 2014 with co-founders Amy Stevens from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and Samantha Radway Morrison from Church Teachers’ College. This year’s theme, ‘Exploring Paradigms for Assessment in Special Education” had over 250 registered participants from across Jamaica.
– Dudley McLean II