Shame on Meadowbrook principal
Published:Sunday | July 1, 2018 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
I was appalled by recent media reports that an 11-year-old Grade Six Achievement Test student who was placed at Meadowbrook High was told by principal Michael Peart that he could not be registered because the school was not designed to accommodate a wheelchair-mobile individual.
It is obvious that Mr Peart did not read the large signboard at the Ministry of Education's Heroes Circle office that reads 'Every Child Can Learn, Every Child Must Learn'.
Education practitioners must be reminded that they are agents of the Ministry of Education and should act in accordance with its policies and procedures.
Is Mr Peart saying that Meadowbrook High School is not inclusive or innovative? Did Mr Peart expect the parent to be running all over Kingston and St Andrew for a school in which to enrol her son after the ministry placed him at Meadowbrook? Any sensitive administrator would have tried to facilitate the family through direct dialogue with the board and ministry rather than to reject the student immediately.
I am happy that the ministry and Jamaica College responded swiftly to save face.
This drama indicates the disconnect between Heroes Circle and what is, indeed, the reality within schools.
ROGER PINADO