Planner: Wait list of 74-plus for Tobago special-needs schools

BOBBY ANDREWS, planning co-ordinator in the Office of the Chief Secretary, has said a 2021 assessment of institutions providing education for special-needs children in Tobago showed more than 74 children are still on a waiting list.

Andrews was speaking at a public consultation on special needs at the Scarborough Library, Tobago, on February 19. The event was hosted by the Division of Education, Research and Technology.

In Tobago, the Happy Haven School in Signal Hill and the Tobago School for the Deaf, Speech and Language Impaired in Bon Accord both cater to special-needs children.

Andrews, chair of the Tobago Special Needs School Committee, said of the children on the list, some were also waiting to be assessed.

He added, “Within the school system, we only had space for 18 additional persons, but we couldn’t get those 18 from the 74 to come in, because the teacher-student ratio was maxed out in the school system.

“So again, just as important as the building would have been the teachers and support staff.

"Perhaps the two of them have to go together. If they don’t, then we can’t wait until we finish one thing to start the next.”

Andrews told the audience Happy Haven School started with just 16 children in 1976, and before that, “Only a handful – between four and six – would leave Tobago to be housed at a special school in Trinidad.

“So you can imagine, we have come a long way. But we still have not come far enough, simply because we still have 74 children on a waiting list.

“Just think about it. What if we have 74 children without disabilities not in a primary school? That is a four-alarm fire. And when you are talking about special-needs children who need additional support, it meant that we had to treat with it with some seriousness. The committee is committed to bringing this level of seriousness.”

In treating comprehensively with special-needs children on the island, Andrews said, the THA has accepted the committee’s recommendation to build a campus instead of a school.

“By overview, we had to suggest a change and with the support of the Division of Education, its administrator and secretary Ms Hackett and the Chief Secretary, we got the okay for a change of scope, from building a school to proposing for us to construct a campus for special-needs children.”

The campus, he said, will contain an assessment and therapy centre for people with disabilities so that they can be assessed on the island. It will also provide water therapy, music therapy and physiotherapy.

“Anyone – if for example, you have chosen to make the ultimate sacrifice and homeschool your children – if there is any special therapy, anyone could access that centre.

"So the school could access it, Happy Haven could access it and the public who need it could access it.”

Andrews said the Chief Secretary and executive council had made the construction of the campus a priority.

“The THA has over 400 projects and they have cut it down to 44. This project has made it into that 44, so the funding will be prioritised.”

He said the total allocation for special education in the THA’s development programme budget is $200,000 and the budget is $205 million, so the allocation is 0.1 per cent.

“So clearly, the THA, in its wisdom, in putting this as an assembly priority, meant that out of the $150 million that they would move around towards these priorities, in terms of its initiation and mobilisation, this project would be the beneficiary of some of that money.”