Alma Parris Academy Prepares to Reopen to Address Special Needs Education Challenges in Partnership with Ministry of Education

With the need to expand resources and develop proven approaches to teaching and learning in Special Needs Education, the Alma Parris Academy will reopen in a preparatory phase at the beginning of the academic year, with enrollment of students slated for January 2025.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, the Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training (METVT), Kay McConney, expressed that it was necessary for the Ministry of Education to develop a different strategy in the area of special needs. She stressed, that there was a need for different approaches inclusive of the play-based approach at the nursery level and project-based approach in the upper schools.

“Special Education needs has increased significantly. We are seeing an increased number of persons presenting with autism and other challenges. Let me be straight, the ministry does not have, at this time, the resources to address every single challenge and every single child, but we are working. The Chief [Education Officer] and her team are working on a plan for us to be able to properly quantify the need and then be able to build the partnerships that will allow us to respond in a more fulsome way to the entire need.”

Ms. McConney disclosed that the reopening of the school is one of the ministry’s initiatives to provide additional support to students, by placing them in a customised learning environment best suited to addressing their specific needs. She added that mandatory diagnostic testing would be incorporated to ensure that the Education Ministry is targeting the interventions according to the specific needs of these students.

“We are going to do the diagnostic testing. I have said to the team, 100% of those students who go into that school must have the diagnostic testing completed. We must go into January with individual educational plans for each child. It cannot be a one size fit all, and we have to customise plans to suit each child. Those individual education plans, those IEPs, must be completed before any child enters the new Alma Parris Academy.”

The Education Minister shared that during the period of September to December, the METVT would be undertaking the preparatory work ahead of the January opening. She revealed, that within this phase, there will be continuous training of teachers and the introduction of pilot programmes with some of the students during that time. This, she noted, will test certain methodologies and approaches and allow for feedback as to how it works. The phase will also see the creation of additional space at the school.