Latest update December 4th, 2024 2:40 AM
Mormons give millions to Education Ministry to aid Special Education
Millions of dollars in materials to aid the delivery of Special Education Needs (SEN)
NCERD Director Jennifer Cumberbatch addresses the educators.
were on Friday handed over to the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) by the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints religious organisation (LDS), also known as the Mormons.
The crucial endowment comes on the heels of workshops that were facilitated by experts in the field of SEN attached to the United States-based religious entity. Among the facilitators were Marc and Katie Steed, a couple involved in SEN for a number of years.
Marc Steed is a Neuropsychologist and Katie Steed is a Professor.
“When we were asked to come and assess what the needs in Guyana are, to see what we can do to help, we were really happy to do so,” said Katie Steed.
The couple came on the bidding of representatives of LDS who had forged a relationship with the Ministry of Education. According to Katie Steed, “where much is given much is required as the scriptures tell us, and so we really felt a strong desire to help our brothers and sisters in Guyana. So with a background in special education, we came and put a lot of the things I typically teach on a college level to my students… we kind of condensed them and tried to share as much information as we could and we hope to come back and follow up.”
According to SEN Subject Specialist attached to NCERD, Mrs. Savvie Hopkinson-Hamilton, the workshops were seen as necessary to advance training for teachers to be able to better assess and help children with Special Education Needs within the public education system.
The recent training sessions held at NCERD during the past week, she said, were instrumental in helping to detect where the deficiencies are within the system; where students are in their cognitive development so that the educators in the classroom could be more informed, and by extension, more effective in the delivery of SEN.
Some of the donated material.
One of the SEN workshops conducted during the past week focused on training educators so that they could be able to assess children in their care. That workshop was attended by 14 educators including SEN officers, literacy officers, lecturers from the Cyril Potter College of Education who function in the early childhood department, an SEN Coordinator from Region Six, Two Heads of SEN Departments from Regions Six and 10. A reading methodology workshop was also conducted and attended by 28 educators.
According to Hopkinson-Hamilton, she is hopeful that the collaboration with the LDS team will be a long term one which will see them returning to do follow-ups with the educators and monitor their evolution in terms of improving SEN.
At a closing ceremony for the workshops last Friday, the educators were presented with certificates of completion. This, however, was not before they were addressed by Director of NCERD, Ms. Jennifer Cumberbatch, who urged them to make use of the training they received. In fact she shared her belief that the training came at an opportune time, even as the Ministry of Education is gearing to upgrade its Strategic Plan. And according to her, the Ministry is looking to ensure that there is inclusion, thus the need for the educators to consolidate on what they learn. She also spoke of the need for trained educators to facilitate staff development sessions even as she appealed to the educators to “think about the children; do what you do for the sake of the children…remember you have a job to do.”
But even as they undertake their teaching responsibility, Cumberbatch warned the teachers to always be accountable. This she premised on the fact that they will be expected to take responsibility for the donated materials they will be given to conduct their work.
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