The Government of Montserrat is pushing ahead with plans to upgrade the Special Education Needs Programme.
Minister for Education Dr. the Honourable Ingrid Buffonge said there has been progress in setting up the SEN Unit in Salem, now going through the procurement process.
She also announced the recruitment of a literacy specialist.
However, Dr. Buffonge says the Ministry is still facing a challenge recruiting specialists to support its programmes. “One of our challenges in education is in securing persons. We continue to work with Human Resources to improve the speed of the recruitment process, as delays in recruitment are still resulting in good professionals accepting work elsewhere for more lucrative pay. Unfortunately, we have just very recently lost our education psychologist to another island.“
She was about to accept the offer, but unfortunately had another offer and there were too many delays in Montserrat getting back to her. And we have also, in the same manner, lost our speech and language therapist who was going to say yes to Montserrat.
Dr. Buffonge says the ministry has a commitment from Human Resources to speed up the recruitment process.
She thanked Psychologist Dr. Carol Tewitt, for her ongoing work with special education students, as well as First Steps Academy, a team in the US that “has been working hard pro bono for the last two years.”
She also said thanks to the Ministry of Health for its work with World Pediatrics, a non-profit group which visited Montserrat recently to assess children with speech and language difficulties.
According to the Minister “there is still the unfilled post for a speech and language therapist here that we’re hoping over the course of the year we’ll be able to fill. This is an essential requirement for special education on Montserrat.”