WITH public schools poised to reopen fully next month after two years in limbo, one organisation is urging the Education Ministry to use the reset afforded by the pandemic to conduct a widescale assessment of so-called problem students.

Sandrea Long-White, project manager for Community Based Rehabilitation Jamaica who contends that many children with developmental challenges have gone unrecognised and have fallen through the cracks, says the assessments should be the first order of duty.

“A lot of our children who are in school and are not performing and have not been diagnosed… are considered rude or not learning. Very often they have a learning difficulty, and assessments sometimes are not easy to come by while parents might be in denial,” Long-White told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

“Sometimes just the stereotyping of them as being ‘rude’, ‘can’t learn’ or being ‘dunce’ can cause them to fall into that mode of ‘All right, I can’t learn. All I do is get in trouble’ and so the behaviour keeps escalating,” she argued.

The closure of classroom doors since March of 2020 when the pandemic hit locally, she said, has placed a lid precariously on the seething situation.

“With the COVID situation a lot of our children who fall in that category are falling through the cracks because a lot of them are in areas where they are not able to access education, and the parents are not going to take the time to ensure that they go online and try to learn. If they are having difficulties in school, can you imagine how they are at home?” Long-White asked.

“So now at the stage of restarting school they are going to be so disadvantaged and so way behind. The first thing that we need to do are the assessments. A lot of these children need to be assessed properly to see their level as it relates to their ability to learn and if they have a learning disability or what. That’s the first thing that needs to be done,” the CBRJ project manager urged.

At the same time, she pointed out that access has remained a troubling issue for families in this situation which can’t afford to pay the estimated $45,000 or more to access assessments for their children.

She said while CBRJ has made concessions in this area, the needs far outweigh their capabilities, adding: “For our agency, we get volunteers so we offer the service at a reduced cost, but it can’t be free because they are professionals so there is a cost of about $15,000.

“I know the Ministry of Education was trying to set up diagnostic centres in all the regions but I am not sure if all of them are up and running. Even so, that can’t handle the load that is out there, [hence] causing long delays in getting back the results of these assessments,” she stressed.

The CBRJ is a non-governmental organisation that was formed in July 2011 following a merger of Rural Services for Children with Disabilities (founded in 1982) and 3D Projects (founded in 1984).

The organisation’s main area of focus is community-based early identification, education, therapeutic intervention, and rehabilitation for children with disabilities and their families.