A focus on people with special needs

Nov 13, 2012 Editorial

Guyana has long had a tradition of ignoring children who are not in mainstream. In short, if a child had a disability that child was largely ignored. The focus was on producing academics by way of the three ‘Rs’. The result was that even slow learners were left to fall by the wayside.
That has changed somewhat. There is a focus on children with special needs. The programme is funded through the Ministry of Education. However, it goes beyond the central education system; it incorporates non-governmental organizations and these, until recently, were the people who drove this programme.
But there have been special schools for some time now. There was a special school for the deaf and another for the blind. A medical practitioner had to certify these children before they could gain admission. Things have changed somewhat. The schools have grown in size and in number so that more children could be allowed to gain an education that would fit them for life.
Every teacher attending the Cyril Potter College of Education is exposed to some training to cope with children with special needs. But there is one problem and that problem has to do with identifying those children with special needs.
Generally, people tend to treat all physically developed children in the same way, ignoring the fact that disability can be much more than physical. Indeed, some parents do not recognize their children’s disability to the extent that when eventually confronted with this fact, they do one of two things—they either begin to discriminate against the child or they then seek specialised assistance.
One child was legally blind but his parent failed to detect this fact. It was an observant teacher who noticed – and only because she was trained to look for certain signs. With increased training in this area, many of those who have reached adulthood and are now considered menaces to society would actually be caught early and fashioned into useful citizens. And we have seen people who had special needs become productive citizens. All they needed was guidance and they actually excelled to the point where they became teachers of others with special needs.
Special needs children exist in every region. The focus must be on helping these children, many of whom want to be like their ‘normal’ peers. One young man with cerebral palsy spoke about learning to do everything from crawling to walking at age six. He spoke of being pushed by his mother, who simply could not afford the sophisticated training when he opted for school. Such training was only available in the city, and he lived in Kwakwani.
But he was only one. He is making a contribution. However there is the sad case of many others who get lost to the system. Some are abused and many are discriminated against simply because they cannot cope with basic activities. We have the visually impaired who have been known to make an impact on society. Quite a few have become teachers, some have become community leaders, and others have worked in the media. But this was only possible because they enjoyed professional help.
A small country like Guyana is now recognizing that its human resource does not allow it to discard anyone. The result is that even at the level of the basic teacher training there is some focus on children with special needs.
Money is crucial to the development of people with special needs. Everyone agrees that enough money is not spent in this sector. Allocations have been increased, but they are never enough.
And what about exchange programmes and seminars to make the nation more aware that people with special needs do exist? The authorities once held Special Olympics at which these children were allowed to feel like other children. This must continue and should this be the case, we might be pleasantly surprised at the spin-off.

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A focus on people with special needs

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