Support for Special Needs Children in Schools
By: , September 1, 2025
Photo: Mark Bell
Minister of Education, Skills, Youth & Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, helps student at Clan Carthy Primary School, Dalton Francis, to work through a mathematics problem. The Minister taught a class at the Kingston-based institution in observance of Teachers’ Day earlier this year.The Full Story
The Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information is putting measures in place to provide support for the increasing number of special needs children in schools.
Portfolio Minister, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, made the disclosure during her back-to-school broadcast on Sunday (August 31).
“We have taken steps to ensure support is available for assessments to identify and address special needs and learning gaps very early. We are also enhancing training, resources, and infrastructure to boost certification rates across our Early Childhood Institutions,” Dr. Morris Dixon said.
“I am so happy to let you know that we will complete a new diagnostic centre at CASE (College of Agriculture, Science and Education) in Portland. As the number of special needs students is expected to rise, we are pre-emptively building out the diagnostic capacity to identify and support our children with special needs,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Minister noted that literacy remains the top priority of the Ministry.
“We want all our children to be confident readers at their grade level. It is for that reason we have timetabled reading in schools for grades one to three across the country and will also be providing more storybooks to our schools to help increase literacy outcomes,” Dr. Morris Dixon noted.