Five qualified counsellors have been attached to a number of primary schools across the country.
This was disclosed yesterday by Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education Harry Husbands during a tour of one of the national summer school centres at St George Secondary School. He said the pilot project was being undertaken with the assistance of the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust, which is providing the financing.
He said that the pilot programme was implemented to support children with social, economic, emotional, behavioural and learning difficulties that impacted on their academic performance.
Husbands said that such support services had been needed for some time at all educational levels – tertiary, secondary, and primary.
“Our society is much more complicated than when I attended primary school.
“This kind of support is absolutely necessary. I would like to see a situation where each of our schools has a nurse employed at the school,” he said. (AH)