We believe there is an important lesson to be learnt from the story ‘Gov’t to pay tuition for student denied public school access’ in the Jamaica Observer’s latest Sunday edition.

That lesson, we contend, is the need for efficient communication, internally and externally, about government services available to those in need.

It turns out that years of struggle by the parents of a disabled child, Ramona-Shae Thorpe, could have been greatly eased were they aware that a department of the education ministry, the Special Education Unit (SEU), was in place to assist children like their daughter.

We are left to assume that other arms of the public sector, apparently including primary schools and the State welfare agency, Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), didn’t know either.

Our story from the previous Sunday told how Ramona-Shae’s parents had to place her in an expensive private school they could hardly afford because primary schools felt ill-equipped to safely meet her needs.

But, in a classic catch-22, PATH declined their application for assistance because she is receiving private education — the clichéd view being that if she is attending an expensive school she doesn’t need State help.

A consequence of all of that was that Ramona-Shae — who is forced to use a walker and/or wheelchair because of a brittle-bone illness which causes her to suffer fractures easily and frequently — missed a year of school at one stage.

It turns out that, as a result of the Observer’s story, the Ministry of Education has reached out to the child’s family and has committed to covering outstanding fees at the private school from whence she will transition to high school.

Crucially, we hear that this is standard practice for the SEU, which is focused on the needs of the disabled in the education system.

In our latest story, Staff Reporter Miss Tamoy Ashman quoted the education ministry as saying that it is prepared to provide support as needed going forward, and that the SEU remains committed to the ongoing development, expansion, and transformation of special education programmes and services.

We are told that Ramona-Shae’s mother, Ms Sasha-Gaye Wood, is in dialogue with representatives from PATH, and is making a new application.

The Ministry of Education tells us that, through the SEU, it currently covers education costs for 720 students with special needs in private schools.

We are told that assistance is available for children with special needs across the public education system islandwide, at the infant, primary, and secondary levels. And that for 2024-2025 the SEU placed 195 students in private schools with tuition support, and many others were facilitated in public schools through regional special needs coordinators.

It seems to us that mechanisms should be in place within our system of governance to ensure that information such as all of the above is easily accessible to Jamaicans.

Crucially, public servants who must interact with the public should have that information to hand or, at the very least, have knowledge of whom and where to ask for guidance.

They should also care enough to want to help. For surely, had there been a sufficiently caring attitude by those interacting with Ramona-Shae’s parents, the child would have had State help long ago.