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• 03 / 05 / 2009

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Santiago Borges, director of the Havana-based Latin American Reference Center of Special Education, told a local newspaper in Cuba that experts from the island have served as advisors in projects related to special education in many nations. Borges said the institution emerged at the request of foreign delegates to the annual international congress on education, in 1990.

The center sponsors 21 projects related to prevention, the promotion of social values and the relation between technology and disabilities as well as the creation of bilingual communication models, among other topics.

Borges, who is also member of the Cuban Education Ministry’s scientific committee and vice president of the Latin American and Caribbean Pedagogical Institute, stated that the island is a reference for special teaching as a result of its experiences and achievements.

He said there are more than 400 schools for special education with a total of 42,000 students enrolled.

“A current priority is the creation of comprehensive education models for students with different disabilities: learning difficulties, autism, and deaf and blindness,” he explained to the Cienfuegos province’s newspaper 5 de Septiembre.

“We are also working to meet the needs of children with cochlear implants and promote the early stimulation of children from 0 to 6 years of age with biological risks and special educational needs,” he added

(Tiempo21.cu)