Bartica Special Needs School in urgent need of more assistance

Teacher Takeisa Caesar with some students from the school

The Bartica Special Needs School is urgently calling for more skill-based training for children with disabilities in the community since they do not have adequate resources to provide this themselves.

Established in the latter half of 2019, the Bartica Special Needs School is Guyana’s first special needs school outfitted with dormitories catering to children living in the hinterland, remote and riverine communities.

To date, the school has nearly 30 students. Takeisa Caesar is one of only two full-time teachers at the school.

“I do believe that we need or we will gladly accept more teachers. As much as we wouldn’t want just anybody to come because it takes a lot of patience, and if your heart isn’t there, you just wouldn’t function.”

She notes that the school is composed of children with varying physical and intellectual disabilities who have varying needs since their abilities to function are inhibited to different degrees in multiple capacities.

“Our children the adapt to stuff quickly, easily, anything. So if they go home over the weekend or for their vacation, they have this whole different training. When they come back to school, we have to do this whole process over again.”

As such, Caesar is calling for more training outside the realm of academics to be provided for the children. She believes this will better enable them to support themselves after they leave school.

“It’s not like we can send them out in the world of work. Some of them, most of them, didn’t go to school they’re just with us. So we know that we can’t just get them on board with books. If people would come on board and assess them and say, ‘You know what, this child is good at this, I’m going to work with this child,’ that would be good for us and better for them.