The education system recorded a significant moment in its effort to become more inclusive, as Ellerslie Secondary School welcomed its first student with a physical disability in over 20 years—an initiative education officials say marks the beginning of wider integration reforms.
The student is a wheelchair user. Officials were mum on further details about the student and did not say what changes were made at the campus to accommodate a wheelchair user.
Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw declared the development part of a deliberate push to modernise the education system.
She said: “As a ministry of educational transformation, we are focused on ensuring that the education system is fair, inclusive, relevant and modern and I’m quite happy today to be here at the Ellerslie Secondary School where we have a student in one of our classrooms who has a physical disability and this is part of our effort to make sure that all of our students feel included.
“Our theme is Every Child Barbados. I will also speak against the backdrop that just earlier this year we started to draft an inclusive education policy that will focus on ensuring that every child has the opportunity to maximise his or her potential within the classroom and what you are seeing here is the first time that this school, the Ellerslie School, has had a student with a physical disability for over 20 years.
“Of course, we want to see more of this across our educational system as we move forward with the rolling out of our education transformation agenda.”
Minister of Educational Transformation Chad Blackman stressed that inclusivity must be central to the country’s development.
He said: “The inclusion of our disabled community and students in particular into the mainstream has already started, but this must continue in earnest because it cannot be that Barbados as a country and moving towards being number one in the world has sidelines for anybody. Our children, whether they are fully abled or otherwise, must be at the centre of all of our development, all of our prospects and of our successes, and I’m proud that the country has now moved earnestly in that direction,” he said.
He recalled meeting the student on the first day of school. “I was touched because while he’s excited about school, he’s with his peers, engaging with his peers, and that is the sort of inclusivity that we’re talking about. No, it’s not always going to be where every child is going to be able to do that because, of course, disability comes in different forms. But the government is committed to providing the resources to ensure that one, the school has the infrastructure to do so, not just school but schools across the country; that the parents are equipped also to help with their learning; that the teachers are equipped to help with their learning; and that environment so that every child in this country irrespective of your circumstance can be highly successful and ready for the world as you go on beyond school and that is really the hallmark of our education system and transformation.”
The move comes against the backdrop of promises made in 2023 by then Minister of Education Kay McConney, who announced that students with special needs would be taught in the regular school system as part of sweeping education reform. That same year, Ashton Hoyte, who is blind, made history when he passed for Harrison College.
(SZB)
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