By ANDRE BAGOO Friday, April 12 2013
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POSSIBLE FIRE FIGHTERS: From left Jeremy Gomes, Jason Maingot, Imran Ali, Christian Paterson, Nicholas Marchell, Nikolai Allamani, Yesh Debideen, who...
THE STATE will seek to create roughly 500 new student support posts at schools nationwide which will be filled by officers trained in a range of fields from psychiatry, behaviourial sciences and counselling — all in a bid to identify and tackle “dysfunctional” behaviour.
According to Minister of Education Dr Tim Gopeesingh, the Cabinet yesterday approved the establishment of several new contract posts which will cost the State about $91 million over three years (or $30 million annually).
“This will bring a great deal of benefit to the education system to help to prevent some of the irregularities which occur,” Gopeesingh said at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing. “It will result in early diagnosis of problems, and of course treatment.”
The minister noted there were 2,500 student suspensions in the last year, and more than 700 of these were for extended periods.
“We have approved human resource personnel to give assistance in the prevention of a number of these (incidents),” he said. “This is to ensure that within the school population we will have a wide cadre of personnel.”
“We hope to make a significant dent on the irregularities in terms of the dysfunctional behaviour of students,” he said. Gopeesingh did not indicate when these posts would be advertised or filled. The Minister, however, acknowledged that it may not be easy filling all the posts.
“I hope to fill these vacancies as quickly as possible, and that we have enough human resources, or persons who are qualified.” Among the types of officers to be recruited are: guidance officers; schools social workers; diagnostic specialists; education specialists; psychiatrists; behaviourial specialists; senior social workers; special education teachers; interpreter assistants; braille technicians; special aid instructors. Also included are managers of student support services and coordinators of guidance counsellors. He said there were plans for five counselling centres to be established.
“This will bring a great deal of benefit to the education system to help to prevent some of the irregularities which occur,” Gopeesingh said at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing. “It will result in early diagnosis of problems, and of course treatment.”
The minister noted there were 2,500 student suspensions in the last year, and more than 700 of these were for extended periods.
“We have approved human resource personnel to give assistance in the prevention of a number of these (incidents),” he said. “This is to ensure that within the school population we will have a wide cadre of personnel.”
“We hope to make a significant dent on the irregularities in terms of the dysfunctional behaviour of students,” he said. Gopeesingh did not indicate when these posts would be advertised or filled. The Minister, however, acknowledged that it may not be easy filling all the posts.
“I hope to fill these vacancies as quickly as possible, and that we have enough human resources, or persons who are qualified.” Among the types of officers to be recruited are: guidance officers; schools social workers; diagnostic specialists; education specialists; psychiatrists; behaviourial specialists; senior social workers; special education teachers; interpreter assistants; braille technicians; special aid instructors. Also included are managers of student support services and coordinators of guidance counsellors. He said there were plans for five counselling centres to be established.
I think this is a great venture and now alot of jobs would be available creating better Standard of Living for peoples life in Trinidad and Tobago. It will also help children deal with issues in a good manner. I hope there isn't any bureaucracy with the issue.
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