Reflections on 2012

Reflections
Wishing the Special Education Sector and its allies a great 2013!
In 2012 the Unit held two (3) management meetings/training and mini interactive story telling sessions with the Special Education schools. But  most of the  Unit’s work was  either sponsored or co –sponsored another agency.
Partnerships and collaborations
The SEN Unit was able to carry out some coaching sessions with the special schools in partnership with Volunteer Services Overseas (VSO). Offer school based intervention training at St Barnabas Special School with support from the Peace Corps Response Volunteer Program. fifty five  (55)teachers were trained in special education practices through a partnership with  the Continuous Professional Development program. We did some diagnostic assessment to indentify students’ learning challenges and develop a simple yet effective intervention strategy for them to practice. This was done in collaboration with the Schools Welfare Division and the Literacy Unit.

Invitations
The Nursery and Primary departments invited the unit to facilitate sessions in their cluster trainings. The sessions were on Autism, visional disabilities, sign language and identifying disabilities and possible interventions for each.
The Deputy Chief Education Officer -Administration invited us to present a special education plan for each region based on the Education Strategic Plan at the quarterly Regional Officers meetings.

Susan Steinberg, Janice O'Neill, Mahanie Gheerow and Karen Hall represented the SEN Unit in facilitating training in Region 9. In each session these areas were covered- motor skills, reading, autism, individual education plan and special needs sensitization- the primary and nursery schools teachers in Lethem, Moco Moca and St Ignacious  participated in the training. On the last day we visited the Speech Therapy Department at Lethem Hospital and held an information session there with teachers and health care workers.

The HIV/AIDS Education Department carried out some monitoring and evaluation sessions in special schools to assess if the draft HIV/AIDS curriculum was being used in the schools. Later in the year Ms. Karen Hall, the subject specialist, held a session with peer educators on simplifying content to meet the needs of all students.

Others
In partnership with UNICEF the Ministry of Education is exploring a workable means in data collection so as to build a national database of students with disabilities; and the Office of Minister of Education hosted some public conversations/consultations on the Special Education Policy and the Education Fair theme was “transforming Guyana through Inclusive Education" the Unit hosted booths showcasing special education materials at both the Inclusive education Expo and the Literacy Showcase.

Child Link Guyana invited the Unit to host a training session on dyslexia, autism and good classroom practices.

The Unit staff wrote the background paper for the First Lady to develop her speech to present at the UN on Autism. We held meeting with NGOs and other interested persons throughout the year.

Mira Howard, a past VSO volunteer is seeking to twin Sophia Special school with a similar school in the UK. The schools heads are now in constant dialogue via Email. Thank you Mira

The Unit on behalf of the Ministry would like to thank all the, departments, organizations, local and overseas volunteers who worked in special education in 2012 with your assistance the Unit had a very successful year.

                                                  Thank you