The Ministry of Education and Youth is to establish a diagnostic centre in Montego Bay, as it continues its effort to decentralise and make these services available to school-aged children with learning disabilities in rural Jamaica.

This centre will offer services similar to that provided by the Kingston-based Mico Child Assessment and Research Centre (Mico CARE Centre).

Minister of Education and Youth, Maxine Henry-Wilson, made the disclosure recently at an awards ceremony for special education teachers at the Jamaica Association of Mental Retardation (JAMR) Limited conference room, Randolph Lopez School of Hope.

She pointed out that branches offering diagnostic testing services similar to those offered at the Kingston-based Mico CARE Centre were now operating in the rural towns of St. Ann's Bay and Mandeville on a smaller basis. She noted that these facilities were "not in any way adequate".

"The need is much greater, and so we are trying to see how we can work with them to replicate their services, and to reduce the long lines that they have in terms of parents coming in to get children tested," the Minister said.

The Mico CARE Centre caters to the needs of children with learning disabilities. It provides services such as diagnostic testing, and teaches parents ways to deal with their special needs children, along with proper parental skills. It is the only such facility in the English-speaking Caribbean.