SECTION IV: SPECIAL EDUCATION IN ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
Special Needs Education
Special Needs Education is provided for those students whose needs cannot be met in the mainstream schools. This doesn’t include the exceptional or gifted students who may also have special educational needs. There are three (3) such schools, one in Kingstown, one in Georgetown and the other in Bequia. The School for Children with Special Needs Kingstown has the largest enrolment of students, forty-three (43) males and twenty (20) females, a total of sixty-three (63) students for the academic year 2019-2020. Georgetown Special Needs school and the Sunshine School for Children with Special Needs, Bequia enrolment were on par with the former enrolling sixteen (16) males and six (6) females and the latter nineteen (19) males and ten (10) females.
In the 2019-2020 academic year, the overall enrolment in the special needs schools stood at seventy-eight (78) males and thirty-six (36) females (total 114). The overall enrolment decreased by two (2) students when compared with the previous year which had a total enrolment of one hundred and sixteen (116). The number of males enrolled at all of the school doubled that of females except in Sunshine School in Bequia. This has been the case since the academic year 2015-2016.
Special education continues to receive the impetus and support from the government in order meet the needs of these learners. To this extent, the government under the SVG Human Development Service Delivery Project has allocated resources to support professional development training for special needs teachers and to provide other resources for the schools. The project will provide support to teachers to improve their pedagogical skills which should provide variety in both the teaching and learning processes.
The policy of the government is that all arrangements must be made to ensure that all students including those with special educational needs receive effective learning opportunities. The long term goal is to move towards implementation of inclusive education through increased integration of students with special education needs into primary and secondary schools.