Africa-Press – Botswana. The PENN Computerised Neurocognitive Battery (PNCB) initiative has been described as a transformative step towards ensuring every child in Botswana regardless of their health background receives support they need to thrive in the education system.
Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Child Welfare and Basic Education Ms Mmamiki Kamanakao made this observation during the launch of the PNCB training of champions, a collaboration between government, University of Pennsylvania and Botswana Baylor Children’s Clinical services. She said the need for the initiative stemmed from a reality that a significant number of learners in schools who experienced HIV exposure presented learning disorders that might hinder their academic and personal development.
“As government, we acknowledge that there are a number of varied factors that may attribute to neurocognitive challenges among our children. This has been evidenced by the increasing referrals for diagnostic assessment at the central resource centre and satellite assessment centres,” said Ms Kamanakao.
She said government recognised the responsibility to create an inclusive environment where learners in need of support were identified early and given the tailored support they required. Ms Kamanakao said education should be a gateway to opportunity and not a barrier dictated by circumstances beyond a child’s control.
“Strengthening the screening of learners with special needs using validated tools is essential for ensuring accurate identification, effective intervention and improved educational outcomes. Our schools are expected to conduct screening of learners through the school’s head of department learning difficulties and school intervention teams,” she said.
Ms Kamanakao pointed out that the process had been negatively impacted by lack of validated tools and inadequate competencies in the area of screening among teachers. She said PNCB came at the opportune time to fill the gaps in the education system.
Ms Kamanakao said PNCB with its scientifically validated approach would strengthen early identification of learners with special education needs and disabilities allowing educators to intervene effectively and appropriately. She said using validated tools, educators could create individualised learning programmes that matched the unique needs of each learner.
Giving an overview of the programme, research director for global health at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Elizabeth Lowenthal said PNCB was a web-based tool that assessed cognitive function across various domains consisting of tasks designed to measure accuracy and speed in cognitive areas such as executive function, episodic memory, complex cognitive processing social cognition and processing speed.
She said the validated tool was expected to strengthen screening process of learners with special educational needs and in particular, neurocognitive challenges and enhance evidence-based programming for learner support. Prof Lowenthal said they would be able to identify how the brain functions, solve problems and identify problems, challenges and weaknesses in leaners with disabilities.
Ministry of Basic Education is conducting a training of PNCB champions to meet the cultural context of Botswana. It has invited a first batch that comprised educational psychologists, speech and language pathologists, regional learner support officers and special educators to be trained on the system’s administration.
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