Very early in this election season I knew that my mind could also be swayed if any political party puts forward concrete measures as to their plans to address the deficiencies regarding the education and therapy for children with developmental diagnoses, since my son is on the autism spectrum.
Not surprisingly, neither party addressed this issue in their manifestos other than flowery drivel which serve no purpose.
However, it is clear after seeing the two-page spread by the Ministry of Education in Thursday's newspapers that all of my concerns were just wasted energy since the listing of accomplishments clearly addresses these issues. Among the notable accomplishments were:
�2 The Ministry has exceeded the global Gold Standard in Education by ensuring that there is one teacher to every 14 students in primary schools and one to every 12 students in secondary schools;
�2 Established 25 Special Needs Schools providing care and education to approximately 2,500 special-needs students;
�2 The Student Support Services Division (SSSD) has been expanded to over 700 professionals to include guidance counsellors, school social workers, clinical/behavioural psychologists.
Since I obviously have not been privy to this information before, I would greatly appreciate anyone being able to direct me to these schools with student to teacher ratio of 14:1 (other than the extremely high-priced private schools). I would also appreciate anyone telling me where these special needs schools are and how do I access them for my child.
It's quite ironic that student services were unable to advise me of these schools when I visited in June.
Michelle Foreman
(Mom of a high-functioning autistic seven-year-old)