West Bay Central candidate Katherine Ebanks-Wilks proposed creating an ‘intervention centre’ in each primary school to support students exhibiting learning challenges.
Ebanks-Wilks made her comments during an appearance on the Cayman Crosstalk radio show Thursday morning. Her opponent, incumbent Eugene Ebanks, did not appear.
“One of the issues that we have is that many of our students are coming out of public schools, and they’re not ready to go into the workforce,” she said.
“What I would support right now within our education system is an intervention centre in each of the primary schools,” she said.
“That centre would pull them out of classroom for a 6-week period, getting them back to their levels, and putting them back in,” Ebanks-Wilks said.
She said the staff of the centres would not be school faculty, but would work directly for the Ministry of Education.
She said early, focussed intervention would prevent later discussions about whether or not students who aren’t meeting standards in secondary school should graduate or be held back.
Ebanks-Wilks said she supports inclusion for students with special education needs, and the centres would be classroom environments within the primary schools. She said the centres themselves may not be sufficient for particular students with significant special needs, who may need additional or different support to remain within the mainstream schools.