Editor’s note: The following is part one of a three-part article. This series presents a response to a Gleaner article which was published on June 1, 2025.
The Jamaican educational system has been in a crisis for many years. Lately, this crisis has gotten worse. I was deeply disturbed by a Gleaner article titled: ‘Left behind: Hundreds of special needs children face silent struggle out of school awaiting assessments’ which appeared in the Gleaner publication of June 1, 2025. That feeling of unease it motivated me to write on a topic that is quite dear to the nation. The article emphasised the nation’s incapacity to satisfy the educational requirements of special needs children. The startling figures illustrate the severity of the issue.
According to the article:
“Data obtained from the Ministry of Education show that approximately 6,800 students with diagnosed special education needs are currently enrolled in the education system – 5,989 in public institutions and 811 in private ones.”
“Data obtained from the Ministry of Education show that approximately 6,800 students with diagnosed special education needs are currently enrolled in the education system – 5,989 in public institutions and 811 in private ones.”
The Ministry of Education Youth, Information, and Skills assigned about 6,800 youngsters as having special education needs. I can assert with great certainty that the number of children with special needs who are not included in the statistics is much higher as they abound. For this reason, the National Census is rather important. Regretfully, the census was not completed; this is a critique directed at former finance minister Dr. Nigel Clarke, the deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). His bad management and supervision of the operation have created a great mess, which is why the census is still under progress. It should be stated that things in this country often seem to be mysterious. A recent Gleaner article titled “Pembroke Hall High faces literacy crisis: One-size-fits-all education model failing special ed students”
The article highlighted that:
“More than 70 per cent of the roughly 220 grade-seven students at Pembroke Hall High School are unable to read or do so only at a grade-three level, according to the school’s principal, Reverend Claude Ellis. Alarmingly, many of these students struggle to recognize letters of the alphabet, Ellis told The Gleaner.”
This is not surprising, as I indicated in my previous article, “Examining the Math Problem in the Jamaican Education System,” which was published on October 7, 2024, that the Covid pandemic has caused so much damage to our children that there are currently approximately 18 years’ worth of academically damaged children in the system, ranging from early childhood to high school, and that we will see a continuous flow of these children passing through the system over the years. One of the schools within the Alternate Pathways to Secondary Education (APSE) programme is Pembroke Hall High School. Students who fail the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) or who are cognitively below average are sent there. Given that those children are present in practically every institution using the Alternate Pathways to Secondary Education (APSE) programme, this shouldn’t surprise anyone.
When will the census be completed to find the overall count of children who have or are suspected of having a learning disability? The government must make adequate provisions for special needs children in the educational system. According to the June 1, 2025 article, hundreds of special needs children suffer silently outside of classrooms while they wait for assessments.
When will the census be completed to find the overall count of children who have or are suspected of having a learning disability?
MICO Care registers around 100 children for psychoeducational assessments; only 700 are tested yearly, leaving almost 300 on an always rising waiting list. This is adding to an increasing student backlog in great need for the always vital psycho-educational assessment. This therefore causes students to find themselves lost in unsuitable environments. According to Mico Care Executive Director Dr. Sharon Anderson Morgan, schools requesting parents to let their children remain at home until the child has been evaluated raises some troubling issues. As per the article:
“A worrying trend in Jamaica, however, is that parents often report that schools ask them not to let the child return until they have been assessed, which ought not to be done,”
Jamaica is a signatory to and is a domestic law violator of the following laws and conventions. These include The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Disabilities Act of 2014, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Jamaica is a signatory to and is a domestic law violator of the following laws and conventions. These include The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Disabilities Act of 2014, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Article 28: Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall:
- Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;
- Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, and make them available and accessible to every child;
- Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity;
- Take measures to encourage regular attendance and reduce dropout rates.
Article 29 further emphasises that education should develop the child’s personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential.
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
Article 24 – Education: Parties recognise the right of persons with disabilities to education. To realise this right without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity, States Parties shall ensure:
- An inclusive education system at all levels;
- That persons with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of disability;
- That reasonable accommodation is provided;
- That persons with disabilities receive the support required to facilitate their effective education.
The Jamaican Disabilities Act of 2014 explicitly protects the right of persons with disabilities to access education and training. This is addressed in Part V – Education and Training, particularly in Section 26 of the Act.
Here is what it establishes:
- No educational or training institution may prevent a person from enrolling in or attending the institution because of their disability.
- Institutions are required to provide the necessary support to ensure that persons with disabilities have unrestricted access to facilities and services, tailored to their individual needs.
Several institutions urge parents to keep their children out of the classroom until they have been assessed. Navardo Blackburn, an eight-year-old whose body was discovered in an abandoned car in Gregory Park, St Catherine, recently was originally diagnosed as autistic. He had completed basic school but he had not yet started primary school. He was awaiting an appointment for assessment before being placed in a learning institution.
Analysing the situation exposes the problem. The facilities for diagnostic testing are inadequate. Though Jamaica has progressed in appreciating the benefits of special education and diagnostic services, not all its teachers’ colleges have on-site diagnostic testing capabilities for spotting learning problems and other educational concerns. Few have these facilities; other Jamaican institutions of teacher preparation have established these centres to serve their students and the society at large. Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College in Montego Bay provides the “Sam Sharpe Diagnostic and Early Intervention Centre,” while the well-known “Mico CARE Centre,” is run by Mico University College in Kingston. Mandeville’s Church Teachers’ College operates the “Educational Assessment & Intervention Centre.” These facilities are crucial for identifying the requirements of the students and providing basis for intervention strategies both inside the institutions and in Jamaica’s larger educational system. There is an urgent need for more testing facilities to assist with the excessive student count in Jamaica that needs special education. From a policy standpoint, more facilities should be built in cooperation with the teachers’ colleges, furnished with the required number of skilled staff to conduct these operations effectively. As soon as feasible, the government should contact these teacher preparation colleges and assist in funding the construction of these facilities. The following are the teacher preparation institutions lacking a Special Education and Diagnostic Centre:
- Moneague College
- Shortwood Teachers’ College
- St. Joseph’s Teachers’ College
- Bethlehem Moravian College
- Catholic College of Mandeville
President of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA), Dr. Mark Smith highlighted that the education system has a $232.2-billion funding shortfall which puts dreams for national educational reform in jeopardy. Although just $48 billion has been promised, the Mona School of Business and Management projects implementation costs for the Patterson Report to be $280 billion.
Drawing on the JTA president’s remarks, the Patterson Report, and my analysis of the learning environment, I believe that they were being very conservative in reaching that figure. Among other things, the education sector is beset by poor funding, crumbling infrastructure, and a paucity of other vital infrastructure. The range is for adequate spending should therefore be approximately ¾ trillion to $1 trillion. This would include developing new facilities like the Special Education and Diagnostic Centres as mentioned earlier and educating key staff members to enable them to outfit these facilities, acquire state-of-the-art equipment and other critical infrastructure at universities both here and overseas. We are at a turning point and thorough, high-level preparation is needed to stop the escalating crises in the educational field. The backlog has some parents ignoring their children’s unique needs, which has resulted in some unanticipated consequences for our children who might have special needs that need to be dealt with urgently. Many parents also find the expenses of these programmes for their children to be taxing. In Part 2 we will discuss the costs involved in dealing with the unique requirements of a child with exceptionalities.
References
Cochrane, D. (2024, October 7). Examining the math problem in the Jamaican education system. Retrieved June 12, 2025, from https://leadershipreimagination.com/uncategorized/examining-the-math-problem-in-the-jamaican-education-system/
Ferguson, A. (2025, May 3). Smith points to J$232.2-billion shortfall in education funding. Jamaica Gleaner. Retrieved June 12, 2025, from https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20250503/smith-points-j2322-billion-shortfall-education-funding
Francis, K. (2025, June 1). Left behind. | Jamaica Gleaner. Retrieved June 12, 2025, from https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20250601/left-behind
Francis, K. (2025, June 10). Pembroke Hall High faces literacy crisis. Jamaica Gleaner. Retrieved June 12, 2025, from https://jamaica- gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20250610/pembroke-hall-high-faces-literacy-crisis#:~:text=More%20than%2070%20per%20cent%20of%20the%20roughly,Reverend%20Claude%20Ellis.%20Alarmingly%2C%20many%20of%20these%20student
Government of Jamaica. (2014). The Disabilities Act of 2014 (Jamaica). https://jcpd.gov.jm/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/DISABILITIESACT2014.pdf
United Nations. (1989).United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): Convention on the Rights of the Child. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child
United Nations. (2006). United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD): Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. https://www.un.org/disabilities/documents/convention/convoptprot-e.pdf
Dervin Cochrane is a fourth year Doctor of Education Student at the School of Education, The University of the West Indies, Mona.
Thank you for taking time out on lending a voice to the voiceless through this article. As I stand to agree with the facts and points that have been brought forward, been a parent of a special need child, whose document is somewhere in an office waiting on an assignment date , ranging from a wait period between 6 month to a year. Callling out all our special need parent , let’s stand to gather and demand changes for our Angels, give them there crown too . Education.
Thank you Madam
I am humbled to be that voice for the voiceless
Thank you Dervin Cochrane for such and informative article. Something needs to be done!
Thank you Haishaina Reid, indeed something needs to be done. Let us hope the Powers that be listen and act accordingly.
I teach at a public school that streams ( 1-6 classes per grade) students and I have been teaching the 6th stream for the past 2 years. I am not a special education teacher but majored in reading. You don’t need eyes to see that most of those children have special needs. When I refer them, they are never tested. You can see that if these children get the help they will excell in the areas that they are stron in and become more successful than their normal peers.