The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

THE government has spent nearly $1.6m transforming Our Lady’s Catholic School into the region’s first special needs centre, according to Education Director Lionel Sands.

The centre, which will open its door on Monday to around 100 special needs children, will focus on identifying, diagnosing and treating students between the ages of five to 16 in the public school system who may be struggling due to a learning disability.

Mr Sands said students are only expected to spend three to six months in the centre, depending on the severity of their learning disorder, before being reintegrated into the regular school system.

“This is a special school,” he said yesterday. “You would be aware that 25 per cent of our students have a learning disability in the public school system. Some of the disabilities may be mild, some moderate and some severe. The disabilities that are mild and moderate may not necessarily be seen in a regular setting and so this special school is designed to identify the disabilities.

“Not only identify them but also to provide intervention for those students who are having challenges whether psychological or what ever the challenges are. Once the intervention is complete, those students will be sent back into the regular classes so they can continue their education. This is just a brief stopping point for students.”

He said the Ministry of Education is performing tests to see which children fall into the special needs category.

“Some of these students who are sent here may have been recommended by teachers who are able to see that the child may have a learning disability but those ones where we can’t see that, we have to bring the children in to do the testing to see if there is a need for intervention. It is the first of its kind in the Bahamas and dare I say in the region and we are happy that we have this wonderful thing happening in the Bahamas.”

Livingston Forbes, chief architect in the Ministry of Works, said the project was originally budgeted at $1.3m but there were “unexpected hiccups” along the way.

He said the centre will have eight standard classrooms, a library, rest room, shower facilities, staff room and other amenities.

“We also put in special features as it relates to the handicapped like an elevator and we have also upgraded the railings,” he said. “We started in August of last year but we had some hiccups along the way. We have gotten some surprises, particularity as it relates to the flooring system. At the end of the day it will probably be around $1.5m, $1.6m.

“We are also putting in more lighting and security features out front. At the end of the day the school will be user friendly.”

Mr Sands said the school has not yet been named.

Last year, Prime Minister Perry Christie said his administration is committed to ensuring that no learning disability goes undetected in the public school system.

Mr Christie said that for years, the educational system has failed to notice special needs cases – a fact which has led to uncontrolled social promotion.

“Where the learning is impaired, we have to be able to find the right way for that child to have that impairment (corrected). I’m saying no longer will the education system have an excuse that there are children in a school whose particular disadvantage in terms of learning disorders is not known to the school,” Mr Christie said previously.

The government, the prime minister has said, will continue to stand by its commitment to double the country’s investment in education and training.