Special education students struggling with online learning

Special education students, such as the 183 who are registered at Edgehill School of Special Education’s four units in St Ann and St Mary, find it extremely more difficult to cope with online learning than regular students and are suffering even more with the absence of face-to-face classes.

The students, aged between six and 21, are affected to varying degrees by intellectual and developmental disabilities and need constant support and supervision to grasp their lessons, support that is not readily available at their homes in the way the school offers it.

It is for this reason that principal, Tabitha Chambers, is hailing the return of face-to-face classes, even though in the case of Edgehill, it will not resume until next year.

Face-to-face classes were suspended initially in March 2020 with the advent of the COVID-19 disease in Jamaica, and while there have been limited resumptions in some areas, majority resumption will take place as of next Monday, November 8.

“We find that our students are more tactile learners so they are more the doing type; also it’s not so easy for them to focus on online because they are not able to focus for long hours online because their attention span is very short and so face-to-face, hands-on instruction would be very, very important for them,” Chambers explained.

Nevertheless, up to 85 per cent of them had online access, she pointed out. “They were taught by our teachers using various methods; YouTube, other online apps and so on. The teachers tried and those parents who were able to be at home were able to work closely with those children online. But it’s not easy to have our children working online when there is no supervision at home.

“They need more supervision, so if they were at school we would be able to teach them more effectively than online.”

Over the past two years, the Government has spent $173 million to place nearly 800 special needs students in programmes appropriate to them.

Last year, 125 students were placed at a cost of $125 million, following the $148 million spent the previous year to similarly place over 650.

It is unclear how the pandemic has affected Government’s spending on special education this year, but according to Chambers, the needs at Edgehill’s St Ann’s Bay unit are still great.

Among the facilities needed at Edgehill St Ann’s Bay, where there are 70 students, is an isolation area, and classrooms for skills training.

“It would be very nice if someone could help us to create some more space maybe in terms of a classroom for the students. Right now if we’re going to create an isolation area we have to use one of our classrooms; and so we really need more classrooms.

“Aside from that, even before COVID, we needed more classrooms and more areas for skills training. Because our students are not able to advance in academics skills, training is very important for them, and so more skills training and skills training teachers need to be put in place so we can have our children learn skills so they can be effective in society.”

Last week, a move by paint company Sherwin Williams to donate several gallons of paint to the office of the Custos of St Ann resulted in the school getting a facelift.

Custos Norma Walters turned over the paint to the Inner Wheel Club of Ocho Rios which, in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Ocho Rios, had built the school in 1997, and carried out a paint job on the institution in preparation for reopening early next year.

President of the Inner Wheel Club, Michele Purchase, noting the impact the pandemic has had on the society, expressed optimism that the students at Edgehill will soon return to school.

“And so in preparation for that, we’ve decided to paint the school, so it can be ready for whenever the Government gives permission (to reopen),” Purchase said.

And according to Belinda Duhaney, Rotary Club of Ocho Rios president, the organisation was only too happy to help as the club had maintained a relationship with the school over the years.

“We built this school in 1997 through grants from Rotary International and a lot of hard work by members at the time; and have kept in touch with the school ever since,” Duhaney told The Gleaner.

Several members from both clubs joined the principal and staff at the school in ensuring the paint job was carried out.