April 28, 2021 Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today Inc. I have always believed that every school must practise, ‘mainstream inclusion’. This means that students, with different strengths and needs, enjoy the benefit of learning together within a mainstream classroom. This is easier said than done, requiring enormously skilled teaching professionals, and every school must have this ethos at its core; it must be their model. Before we consider strengths and needs, let’s examine the foundation stone of assessing cognitive ability. This governs, to a great extent, aptitude (ability and ease) in acquiring and synthesizing information.