“When I looked at the Education Act and the responsibility and duties that the Act imposes upon the minister, I realized that we had promises that were unfulfilled,” said Minister of Education Alfred Sears, who spoke at a conclave on Wednesday to address special education needs.
“We had legal responsibilities that we were failing to discharge. In other words, the Ministry of Education was in breach of the law. The ministry was acting like an outlaw and we were talking about law and order and observing the rule and here we had the law prescribed by the parliament of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, directing that the minister makes adequate provision for the instruction of special needs children, and I had brought before me evidence that we were breaching the law.”
Minister Sears said that upon reflection he realized that parents of special children had the “legal capacity” to take the Ministry of Education to court to get a declaration that “we were in breach of the law and to even get perhaps a remedy giving them damages for our breaching the law.”
“That is a very serious situation, but that was and to some degree still is the state of Bahamian education,” he said.
With only 120 special education teachers in the public school system, the Department of Educationﾒs special education unit is forging ahead with plans to establish a national education syllabus for children with special needs before the start of the fall semester, according to education officials.
Assistant Director of Education Carnetta Ferguson, who is also the director of early childhood care and the special education unit, said the government is also providing 50 percent tuition for persons pursuing a university degree in special education.
She too spoke at the Special Education Conclave at the Bahamas Union of Teachers headquarters on Bethel Avenue in New Providence.
“It is time for change and change will come, ” Ms. Ferguson said.
“The goal is to place curriculum documents in every regular and special school which has been a long time in coming, but we are going to make sure that the first draft is ready for August.”
She added, “I know it is difficult to get it done when some [teachers] who are working on it could only be pulled half a day on a Friday to work. That has to stop because if we consider the curriculum to be essential, we need to work consistently to get it ready for that deadline.”
Under the theme, “Inclusion and the special educator in the 21st century”, scores of special educators attended the conclave.
In July 2003, Prime Minister Perry Christie appointed The National Commission on Special Education to raise the quality of education programmes to support higher levels of learning for students, including children with learning disabilities and special needs.
Over the next three years, educators also intend to conduct early childhood screening for special needs students and help develop proposed legislation to address special education.
By: Royanne Forbes-Darville, The Bahama Journal
