THE Ministry of Education’s (MOE) slogan — every child can learn, every child must learn — has come under recent scrutiny by a group of psychiatrists who claim that it is flawed.

The group, members of which opted for anonymity when they spoke with the Jamaica Observer, said that while every child does have the ability to ‘learn’ the way that learning is tested in Jamaica only suits children who are able to gain knowledge directly from a book.

“In the Jamaican system learning is tested by way of face-to-face interaction in a classroom and then a test is administered, on average, every six weeks,” one psychiatrist said. “While most children will learn this way, schools do not know what to do with those who don’t and even if a child learns a skill and not a complex subject such as Physics, there is still a theory aspect that must be passed for certification to be granted.”

He continued: “Some children will never pass a written exam, but, they may be good with their hands. The system is designed in such a way that if the written and practical components aren’t passed, you’re left behind. The system is set up in a way that will best suit those who can learn in the way it tests learning, which is theory and practical.”

In their rant, they mentioned that though only a small component of the population may be affected by intellectual disabilities, the fact that it exists should warrant a different approach by the education officials, especially where it says ‘every child must learn’.

“The point is some children have intellectual disabilities that will cause them to never learn in the way it is tested. To say they ‘must’ learn is stretching it,” another psychiatrist pointed out.

When the Sunday Observer spoke with President of the Jamaica Psychiatric Association Dr Geoffrey Walcott he said while his colleagues claims are true to an extent, there are behaviour modification programmes that exist to target such children, citing the Dream a World project as one.

He said: “We took kids that were at the bottom of the class and used a therapeutic tool to change their performance and this has been adopted by the Ministry of Education and rolled out in 35 schools. The results we have show the kids improved significantly.”

But, in defence of the MOE’s slogan, a response prepared by Dr Hixwell Douglas, assistant chief education officer in the MOE’s Special Education Unit and Dr Michele Meredith, special education co-ordinator in the MOE stated that the slogan represents an accurate description of the potential capability of each child with a disability.

The comments from Hixwell and Meredith further explained that children with intellectual disabilities perform consistently below average, and have challenges with conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills. They said such challenges may be categorised as mild, moderate or severe to profound, and pointed out that teachers working with children with intellectual and other disabilities, set reasonable expectations for each child, and use a variety of strategies to communicate and teach in daily activities.

Moreover, the response said some children with severe to profound levels of intellectual disability, will learn basic daily living skills such as toileting, responding to touch, sound, light, temperature and hunger. However, these skills are taught using task analysis, which is breaking down content and instructions in a step-by-step sequential manner to facilitate learning.

The statement further said that this kind of instruction and understanding is outside the realm of a psychiatrist and is the remit of special educators and psychologists.

Additionally, the response made it clear that children with moderate intellectual disabilities, require moderate support in learning appropriate social and daily living skills such as dressing, feeding, using money and taking the bus. The statement further said that these students are assessed at the school level using different types of alternative assessments, which include demonstrations, oral tests, projects, portfolios and other alternative forms consistent with the child’s ability to demonstrate learning. Subsequent to that the statement said students operating at the mild to moderate levels of intellectual functioning, have been excelling in the areas of food preparation, housekeeping, agriculture, horticulture, carpentry, soft furnishing, music and other vocational areas, while some are able to compete with the general student population to receive HEART NVQJ certification.

In direct response to the psychiatrists, the statement suggested that to say that these children cannot learn, represents a gross misunderstanding of the learning and instructional strategies associated with intellectual disability and other types of cognitive, emotional, behavioural, sensory and physical disabilities.

Moreso, it said, schools operated by the Jamaica Association on Intellectual Disability (JAID) provide this kind of education for students categorised as intellectually disabled. These schools include, the Randolph Lopez School of Hope, Windsor School of Special Education, Llandilo School of Special Education, Edge Hill School of Special Education, Woodlawn School of Special Education and Carberry Court School of Special Education. The response pointed out that all of these schools are grant-aided institutions and the ministry is responsible for all recurrent costs, adding that some privately operated schools offering programmes and services to students with intellectual disability, such as Genesis Academy, the STEP Centre and the Promise Learning Centre also receive financial and technical support from the MoE.

Additionally, the response said that in order to facilitate the unique learning needs of children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities, the MoE, in collaboration with UNICEF, is developing a curriculum for children with moderate to severe or profound intellectual disability. The statement said that the curriculum is mapped to the National Standard Curriculum utilising similar themes, with modified content suited to the cognitive abilities of this population of learners. It further mentioned that this project is 90 per cent completed, and should be ready for implementation in 2016.

With regards to student/teacher ratio, the statement said that teachers working with children with intellectual disabilities are supported by teachers’ aides — one per class of 12 students, and benefit from nursing support provided by the MOE. It further stated that these children are supported by the ministry, through the provision of special accommodations for those able to sit national examinations. This, according to the statement means readers, writers, prompters and extended time are some of the examination accommodations made available to such students.

With reference to programmes to address behavioural issues, the statement said that the ministry has over the years conducted training for teachers, to address and manage behaviours associated with autism, intellectual disability, emotional and behavioural disorders and similar conditions. It added that the ministry is involved in the training of teachers in the use of a school-wide positive behaviour intervention, and Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) support for all students. Additionally, that statement said teachers are being trained in the use of Team Teach — a positive behaviour intervention strategy designed to prevent challenging behaviours and promote restorative discipline.

The statement also said that approximately 100 teachers working with children with learning and other mild disabilities, from special education programmes and the general education system were exposed to Life Space Crisis Intervention training aimed at helping teachers to identify six common patterns of self-defeating behaviour displayed by students, and specific reclaiming strategies to address each. Also, the engagement of guidance counsellors in most schools, deans of discipline and the recently appointed regional social workers, the statement said, will broaden the range of behaviour intervention support for students displaying antisocial and self-defeating behaviours.

In the statement, Hixwell and Meredith maintained that the MoE recognises that there is diversity among the student population and explained that it is important to understand that the challenges of achieving academic expectations are not limited to cognitive abilities only; but are influenced also by social, emotional, and economical challenges.