The many challenges of Randolph Lopez School of Hope
STUDENTS with intellectual disabilities at Randolph Lopez School of Hope experience many emotional, employment, and economic challenges in the Jamaican society, an official has said.
Vice-principal of the school of Hope, Avril Dixon says students tend to have low self-esteem because society ostracises them.
Students are teased and ridiculed whenever they travel to and from school, the viceprincipal said. For this reason, students remove parts of their uniform after school in order to not be identified as disabled. “One of our biggest challenges is that there isn’t the public awareness that is needed for them to feel comfortable in their own communities,” Dixon expressed to the Jamaica Observer.
The vice-principal said although there has been improvement in public awareness over the years, the public is still lacking adequate knowledge about the disabled.
Another challenge most of the students at the Randolph Lopez School of Hope face is that many of them are
from inner-city communities. Students face individual financial challenges to effectively attend school at times. However, some students are able to benefit from the government’s financial aid through the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).
The school only offers a school-leaving certificate as the ultimate qualification for students as Randolph Lopez school is unable to issue any higher form of qualification to graduates. Dixon explained that the reason for this is “In order to get certifications for some of those programmes, the students have to master an academic component. So even though they may have the skill set in terms of the actual functional tasks, sometimes they are not able to master the academic aspect of it.”
Dixon also shared that there are students who bake and do woodwork very well but are not entirely capable of reading higher than the grade two or three level. “Our stakeholders are working on making a collaboration with the HEART/ NTA (Human Employment and Resource Training/national Training Agency) to have a special programme catering to intellectually disabled persons.”
There is currently no institution in Jamaica that offers a programme designed for the intellectually disabled. Many students complain about not being able to get a job after leaving the School of Hope. However, there are a few students who become entrepreneurs and employees of other businesses.
The staff at the Randolph Lopez try to make the students’ experiences as normal as possible. “Even the lowest-functioning child needs a sense of social interaction, unless the child is autistic. generally, students or adolescents with disabilities have a similar sense of peer interaction as their counterparts in the other high schools,” Dixon told the Sunday Observer.
The school offers classes in cosmetology, physical education, music and information technology. It also aids social interaction and development by hosting fun days, fairs, class parties, sports days and field trips like other high schools. The Randolph Lopez School of Hope also has a drumming group and school choir.
Students are often referred and transferred from other primary schools if they are not performing to the required standard. The vice-principal said the school does not do promotional advertisements, but officials use public forums and seminars to raise awareness about the school and disabled children. She hopes that public awareness about the disabled in Jamaica will be improved.
The Randolph Lopez School of Hope is funded by subventions from the government and the Jamaican Association on Intellectual Disabilities (JAID). It enrols students between the ages 11 and 21.
The institution is the largest and oldest school serving children with intellectual disabilities in Jamaica and the English-speaking Caribbean.