The Ministry of Education has sought the expertise of a leading Australian university to design a teaching module in a bid to improve our special education curriculum.
During a meeting with Australia’s Newcastle University delegation, the Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts, Mahendra Reddy requested the university to assist in this area.
The module, he said would effectively train our special education teachers to serve the needs of the intellectually-disadvantaged.
Mr Reddy said: “Currently we do not have specially-trained teachers in this area and this offer is a timely boost.”
The request comes following the university’s education opportunities for local students either for undergraduate or post-graduate education.
The delegation led by the university’s Nareish Kumar met with our minister on Monday.
Mr Reddy acknowledged the delegation’s effort in providing these opportunities.

Budget
He said in the 2016 National Budget, the increased budget allocation for special schools was indicative of Government’s commitment in this area of education.
“We will see to the preparation of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Education and the University of Newcastle on how we can further pursue this opportunity.”
The first step in this partnership will see 12 students attending the University of Newcastle’s Speech Pathology and Occupational Therapy programme, funded through the New Colombo Plan next year.
In February 2016, the University of Newcastle will be sending another delegation to Fiji to look at other collaborative projects on climate research.