MORANT Bay Primary School in St Thomas has introduced two special education units for the 2017/2018 academic year.

Senior teacher at the school, Devmarie Blake-Brown, told Jamaica Observer North & East that the move serves to reach students who learn at a slower level. It also forms part of the Education Ministry’s plans to have special education in all schools by 2018. Two teachers will run the units.

Blake-Brown said, as a result, expectations are high for a productive year.

She added that the passes should be “greater” as well, because efforts are being made to ensure that each grade has a literacy programme. Students who are not at the level that they should be in a particular grade will be assisted on an individual basis through pull-out sessions.

Added to that, there is strong emphasis on unity among the 32 teachers on staff for this year.

“What we emphasise is unity, working together. We will be collaborating in terms of teams, so grades will be working in accordance with each other to ensure that wherever we see weaknesses in one grade we actually coordinate with those to ensure that those can be addressed, and likewise in the upper. So there is a focus more on unity in terms of sharing ideas, sharing strategies in order to enhance the whole teaching/learning experience,” the senior teacher said, adding that staff meetings have been completed.

Approximately 110 new students have registered at the school, which has a population of approximately 800 students.

“We normally get throughout the year, or even on September morning you have people who are coming in as well as people transferring from other schools — so that number should go up as well,” Blake-Brown shared.

Meanwhile, the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) has assisted the school with the remodelling of several classrooms, among other things.

“We had some assistance from JSIF in giving the school a facelift. So painting was done, classroom separations — because prior to that we had blackboards separating classes and now we have concrete structures. We also have different classes getting furniture, and the canteen was upgraded to make it safer and also to bring it up to standard with health stipulations,” she said.

Whiteboards were also given to the given to the school.