GREEN ISLAND, Hanover — Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon is urging the country’s educators to take up scholarships designed to train specialists who work with an ever-increasing number of children with special needs.

“This is where we’re also going to need your help because the ministry has several scholarships in this area and we’re asking our teachers to take up these scholarships. We also have scholarships at the Ministry of Health level for the [Dr] Barrington Wint Scholarship where we’re trying to get Jamaicans to sign up to do courses like speech therapy, and also occupational therapy and behavioural therapy, because our children need those services,” stated Morris Dixon.

She was addressing the final day of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association’s (JTA) 61st Annual Conference held at Princess Grand Jamaica Hotel in Green Island, Hanover, on Wednesday.

The minister noted that there are now very few of special education practitioners in the country, at a time when their services are badly need.

“Given the data that we see in terms of the increasing number of children with special needs we’re going to need increased specialists in this area, and that’s why between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health we’re putting more scholarships in this area so that we can have the resources necessary,” explained Morris Dixon.

“It doesn’t make sense to build diagnostic centres and have nobody to work in there, or to get reports on what’s wrong with your child and there’s no one to work with the child. This has to be a priority — and it is a priority of ours,” she added.

According to her, a diagnosis centre is being finalised at the College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) for children in the ministry’s Region Two. Jamaica Observer checks also showed that Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College in St James currently has a Diagnostic and Early Intervention Centre while Mico University College in Kingston has a Child Assessment and Research in Education (CARE) Centre. Morris Dixon said these facilities will help minimise the need for children in other sections of the country to travel to Kingston to access diagnostic services.

“This is really important. I know the long wait. When I tell you I’ve been there, I’ve been on the wait list waiting to get a diagnosis for a child. I’ve been there and I know how hard it is. And then, when you get the date, it takes forever to get the report so I understand it deeply and it’s something we have to fix,” she said.

The minister also spoke of the need for special education programmes in schools to be broadened to meet the growing needs of students with these needs.

“I keep hearing it over and over again, ‘I have them [children with special needs] in my classroom. I don’t know what to do. I’m not equipped. This is not what I was asked to do.’ And so the special education programmes that we have in our schools, we’re going to have to expand them,” Morris Dixon said.

She stressed that the increasing number of children with special needs is not unique to Jamaica but is rather a ‘global phenomenon’ whose local implications will have to be addressed.

“We’re going to have to deal with it. And I’m very glad to see some of the work that is happening — especially in our teachers’ colleges that are working to educate our teachers about special needs and how to treat with them in the classroom — because we’ve said we want to have a more integrated approach where necessary,” stated Morris Dixon.