Dear Editor,
Recent public reports concerning the alleged mistreatment of a student at the David Rose Special Education Needs School have rightly disturbed the conscience of the nation. We note that the Ministry of Education has reportedly completed its investigation and forwarded the file to the Teaching Service Commission, including reports, statements, findings and formal recommendations.
Since the Teaching Service Commission is the body with disciplinary authority over teachers, that process must now proceed fairly, lawfully, transparently and without delay.
However, this matter should not be reduced to the conduct of individual teachers, however serious those allegations may be. If a child with disabilities is harmed in a State education setting, the country must ask not only, “Who did this?” but also, “What system allowed this to happen?” Individual accountability is essential; institutional accountability is equally indispensable.
Reports have circulated that teachers at David Rose are working without adequate numbers of trained teaching aides and assistants; without resident nurses or behavioural therapists; with occupational therapists and speech therapists reportedly available only once or twice per week; and with teacher-student ratios said to be as high as one teacher to ten or twelve children. For children with complex and varied disabilities, such ratios are plainly unsafe and educationally unsound.
They are also reportedly inconsistent with Ministry of Education expectations, international good practice and the Guyana Teachers’ Union position that there should be one teacher aide to one teacher.
Further concerns have reportedly been raised about classes containing children with a wide range of disabilities and support needs, making meaningful individualised education extremely difficult. Reports have also described poor washroom facilities, with only some toilets functioning; teachers having to flush and clean toilets manually; inadequate furniture; long working hours sometimes stretching to twelve-hour days; an overgrown school compound; and even snakes entering classrooms.
If these reports are accurate, they do not describe a few minor administrative deficiencies.
They describe a system in distress, a school community in which children with disabilities may not be receiving the level of safety, dignity and individual support they require, and where teachers may be expected to carry impossible responsibilities without the tools, staff, training and therapeutic support necessary.
The David Rose Special School established in 1968 is one of Guyana’s oldest special educational schools. It should represent the highest national standard of specialist care. Instead, the recent allegations have opened a wider and more painful national conversation about whether both children and teachers are being placed in an environment that is under-resourced, overstretched and insufficiently supported. According to news reports there are now 49-50 Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) facilities catering to 1,350 students now operating in Guyana. This is to be commended but it raises concerns about the quality of care, appropriate resources including adequately trained special needs teachers, support staff, teaching aids, equipment and infrastructure within these 49-50 new special needs facilities. And if indeed these new SEND facilities are better equipped and have the required human and other resources then an explanation is warranted to explain deficiencies at the David Rose School.
The Persons with Disabilities Act (2010) mandates the Minister of Education to establish special education classes in schools, ensure non-discrimination in access to education, and require Parliament to provides funds for special education resources.
This Act under Sub Part II Education requires the MOE to ensure persons with disabilities have access to free and compulsory primary, secondary education, develop and implement specialised teacher training programmes for special schools and integrated school classes for children with disabilities; promote the establishment of State and private sector special schools so that children with disabilities living in any part of Guyana have access to such schools; equip the special schools with vocational training facilities and encourage the development of a system of support services. In practical terms, this means that children with disabilities are entitled not merely to a place in a school, but to education that is safe, suitable, resourced and respectful of their dignity.
Guyana must also confront, without evasion, the continued use and cultural defence of corporal punishment. The issue exposed by the David Rose matter is not simply whether one child was mistreated. It is whether Guyana continues to tolerate a disciplinary culture in which adults are permitted to use physical force against children and then call it correction.
Corporal punishment in any setting is unacceptable. It is especially indefensible in special education settings. Many children with disabilities may have communication difficulties, sensory sensitivities, trauma histories, developmental delays, behavioural support needs or difficulty explaining what has happened to them. To strike, intimidate, humiliate or physically punish such a child is not discipline. It is a failure of care, training, supervision, law and ethics.
We must speak plainly. Beating children does not teach respect. It teaches fear. Beating children does not build discipline. It normalises domination. Beating children does not create accountability. It teaches that the stronger person may use pain to control the weaker one. Guyana cannot continue to lament violence in society while defending violence against children in homes, schools and institutions.
Corporal punishment in Guyana is only prohibited for children in penal institutions and as a sentence for a crime- Juvenile Justice Act 2018. The Childcare and Development Services (CDS) Act 2011 prohibits corporal punishment for children under the age of 12 years in a childcare service, defined as pre-school care, play group, home care, day care or night care services or safe home/residential facility for children under 12 years.
We do not know how closely childcare services are being monitored to ensure no corporal punishment is being administered at these services as there are a great many operating in Guyana.
Guyana signed and ratified many years ago the Convention on the Rights of Children. Article 19 (1) states “State Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardians or any other person who has care of the child..” Art.28(2) “State Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child’s human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention…”.
Guyana for years has been violating the CRC in relation to corporal punishment and at every Universal Periodic Review it continues to be reminded about this violation of the rights of Guyana’s children to be free from all forms of violence in schools and in the home. These are not ornamental commitments. They are binding child-rights obligations.
There is no principled basis on which the State can protect children from violence in some institutions while permitting violence in others. Children do not lose their dignity at the school gate. Children with disabilities do not have fewer rights because their needs are more complex. Teachers do not become better professionals when they are permitted to use force. Schools do not become more disciplined when fear becomes a management tool.
Accordingly, we call on the Government of Guyana, the Ministry of Education, the Teaching Service Commission and all relevant authorities to take the following urgent actions:
1) Ensure the full implementation of The Persons with Disabilities Act (2010) Sub Part II Education.
2) Ensure full, fair and timely accountability for David Rose School, ensuring deficiencies identified are rectified ASAP.
3) Conduct an independent SEND quality audit for David Rose and all 49-59 special education SEND facilities
4) Immediately prohibit corporal punishment and all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or maltreatment in special needs schools, special needs classes in schools throughout Guyana and in all institutions where children are in the care, supervision or authority of the State.
5) Provide mandatory training for all teachers, school leaders, aides and caregivers working with children with disabilities, covering disability rights, autism and neurodevelopmental conditions, trauma-informed practice, positive behaviour support, non-violent discipline, safeguarding and child protection law.
6) Establish confidential complaints and incident-reporting mechanism for parents, teachers, students and caregivers, with clear procedures for investigation and protection from retaliation with timely feedback.
7) Review childcare, residential care and educational institutions to ensure that existing prohibitions on corporal punishment are being monitored and enforced, particularly where young children and children with disabilities are concerned.
8) Begin a national programme of re-education on non-violent discipline and healing including mandatory counselling for all politicians, leaders, teachers and caregivers who think it is okay to beat children. There is no more need for consultation on beating children, only need for re-education and re-learning.
A country is judged not by how loudly it speaks of development, but by how gently and justly it treats its most vulnerable children. We cannot build a modern Guyana on old habits of violence. We cannot call ourselves a caring society while leaving children with disabilities under-protected and teachers under-supported. The mistreatment of children with disabilities must end. Corporal punishment must end. Under-resourced special education must end. Accountability must begin now.