(The Bahamas) "Potentially thousands of students...are awaiting assessments"
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
THE Davis administration is moving to expand special education capacity in Grand Bahama after officials found more than 50 children waiting for placement at the island’s Beacon School, with two schools now being refurbished to accommodate additional special education units.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Chester Cooper said Bartlett Hill Primary and the new Holmes Rock Junior High School are being prepared to provide additional space for students with special needs, as the Ministry of Education confronts what he described as a potentially much larger national demand for assessments and services.
Mr Cooper said potentially thousands of students across The Bahamas are awaiting assessments after referrals by teachers and principals, making special education an urgent priority for the ministry.
He said the scale of the problem in Grand Bahama became clear during a recent visit to the Beacon School.
“One of the things I learned was that the waiting list was roughly 53 persons,” he said.
Mr Cooper said the administration decided additional capacity was needed to ensure students with special needs have access to appropriate education. . . .
Mr Cooper said the administration is seeking to expand the number of teachers and specialists able to work with students with special needs, including speech pathologists and professionals trained in applied behaviour analysis.
The University of The Bahamas has been asked to partner with the ministry to train at least 75 teachers in special education.
Mr Cooper said the ministry also has an existing memorandum of understanding with Barry University and is pursuing a partnership with Florida Memorial University as part of efforts to increase the number of trained Bahamian special education teachers.
The expansion comes as the ministry undertakes a broader recruitment drive aimed at hiring as many as 300 teachers ahead of the new school year. . . .
“This is a work in progress,” Mr Cooper said. “We are going to be ready for a school to open in September, but we're going to consistently work to ensure that we bridge the gap that we are confronted with.” . . .
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