Dear Editor,

Amongst the varied challenges that engulf our nation is that of addressing the plight of children with special needs. Hundreds of our children are abused daily due to the failure of parents/guardians to recognise, accept, and make provisions for children with special needs.

Sadly, even some of the nation’s schools with a majority population of ‘troubled students’ often fall short of the mark in addressing the fact that these children need to have access to proper psychosocial assessment and intervention.

The minister of finance and the public service, Nigel Clarke, shared a dream of establishing Jamaica among the world’s leading nations with chess masters. He has allocated $40 million to the Jamaica Chess Federation through the Ministry of Sport to get the process going (Jamaica Observer, March 9, 2023).

The success of any transformation of education, especially to students with special needs, requires unmasking the creativity, self-motivation, critical thinking, and motor skills development within each child. We believe that such possibilities exist within the classroom through the playing of chess.

My colleague Adrian Allen and myself, during the 2019 Special Education Conference & Workshops hosted by Church Teachers’ College, demonstrated how the playing of chess contributes to skills like concentration and decision-making strategies in students with special needs, and that it may be transferred to academic subjects like mathematics.

According to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, “There are a couple of studies that examine the potential benefits of chess for students with special needs. In one study, special education classes in Germany were randomly assigned to have one day of maths instruction replaced with chess instruction for a school year or continue with five days of typical maths instruction. The researchers assessed students in the treatment and control groups before and after the intervention in the areas of mathematics calculation and concentration abilities. At the end of the year, the two groups did not differ in concentration or written mathematical tasks. However, in the areas of counting and calculation tests, the students who participated in the chess programme performed better.”

Through the playing of chess with students of special needs we have seen remarkable improvements in educational outcomes. As such, we believe that the playing of chess is another alternative means of positive reinforcement of educational skills development. It’s opportune time that the Jamaica Chess Federation, Ministry of Sport, and Ministry of Education plough the nation’s fertile soil of children with special needs, thus unleashing a cohort excited to make Jamaica great in chess.

Dudley McLean II

Mandeville, Manchester

dm15094@gmail.com