Red hills primary benefits from Child Find initiative

Bjorn Burke, Staff Reporter

At the beginning of the school term in September, 20 students enrolled at the Red Hills Primary School in St Andrew are on track to benefit from the Ministry of Education’s special-education Child Find initiative, ensuring no child gets left behind in the task of learning.

In acknowledging that there are students at the school who face several challenges in the classroom, Red Hills Primary principal Lorna Hector shared with THE weekend STAR that the Child Find initiative to come on stream is graciously welcomed.

“We would like to improve the programmes offered. One main one is, come September, we hope to include a programme of special needs. We’re going to cater for special-needs children. Already, some children have been selected and tested by Child Find in collaboration with the Ministry of Education,” she explained. “We know that many children are not making it for different reasons, and one of the reasons is that some just might have learning challenges that the ordinary teacher would not be able to assist them within the way in which they should be.”

Hector further explained that the number of students selected for the Child Find initiative is expected to increase as time progresses.

The Child Find special-education policy, birthed out of the necessity to provide assistance to children with special needs, was spearheaded by the Ministry of Education, identifying students with undiagnosed and undetected challenges in schools islandwide.

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Red hills primary benefits from Child Find initiative