Kaieteur News – The Guyana Council of Organisations for Persons with Disabilities (GCOPD) on Monday launched its first ever Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) Robotics exhibition for children with disabilities.
The simple yet significant ceremony was held at the Umana Yana located at Kingston, Georgetown. The STEM Robotics programme for children with disabilities is a national initiative being spearheaded by GCOPD and supported by ExxonbMobil Guyana.
The programme was first launched in February 2020 with STEM clubs being established in the Special Education Needs (SEN) schools in Region Four. Currently, there are 10 STEM clubs in all the SEN schools across the country.
Delivering remarks at the launching ceremony yesterday, GCOD’s Programme Manager, Ganesh Singh said that over the past three years with support from ExxonMobil and the University of Guyana Robotics Club, they were able to work with approximately 200 children with disabilities in nine Special Education Needs Schools and one training centre. He noted so far that the programme has been done in two phases.
In phase one, he said they had about 70 children with disabilities and had a small graduation in 2020 and in phase two they have for the first time the exhibition with approximately 130 children with disabilities. According to the Programme Manager, through this programme they were able to teach the children basic robotics, basic coding, help them to develop critical and problem-solving skills, expose them to science technology, engineering and maths concepts, and also at the same time raise their level of environmental awareness.
“We were able to get into a field with children with disabilities that were neglected for a longtime within the special education system. Yes, the children were exposed to some level of science but not in a level that we as advocates for children with disabilities would like. With this project we were able to get more in dept. We have not achieved our goal as yet because we have a lot more plan in the not-too-distant future to build on what was done,” Singh shared yesterday.
He mentioned too that with phase two of the programme reaching more children with disabilities, some of the projects they have come up with are innovative ideas to provide solutions to everyday problem in the society. “And to think that children with disabilities who are not in the top level of our education system are the ones to come up with these solutions it is inspiring and at the same time it is fulfilling to know that what we have put in, something came out of it,” he added.
Lastly, Singh stated that in moving forward, they are planning to go ahead into phase three come April, and this is to ensure that more children with disabilities are exposed to STEM and also the students that are currently part of the clubs that they can learn new concepts. “We are planning to establish a club especially for children who are on the autism spectrum and we will do this by developing or modifying the current curriculum,” he noted.
Speaking briefly at the ceremony, President of ExxonMobil Guyana, Alistair Routledge who expressed that his company is pleased to partner with GCOPD on this initiative noted that the “STEM programme is one of ExxonMobil’s cooperate social responsibility focused areas.” On behalf of the Ministry of Education, Advisor to the Minister, Africo Selman yesterday commended GCOPD for introducing the STEM robotics programme for children with disabilities. “This reflects the commitment, the dedications, the passion and affection for our children who are specially challenged but extremely gifted, congratulations,” she expressed.
