Pupils with special needs are being neglected as the provincial department of education battles to find specialists to help them.
At Vukuhambe Special School in Mdantsane, there is no speech therapist to bridge the communication gap between pupils and teachers, most of whom are not trained to deal with special cases.
One pupil is now having to leave Vukuhambe, not having learnt anything at the school due to the shortage of specialised skills.
Asanda (not his real name) has merely been promoted, without actually passing, to the next grade over the years due to the crisis.
Currently there are five vacancies for specialists at Vukuhambe, including for a speech therapist who would have helped Asanda to progress academically.
The school is meant to accommodate pupils with physical disabilities, but the chief director for social support services, Thembani Mtyida, said the challenge was that some pupils had more than one disability.
Mtyida made an example of Efata School for the Blind in Mthatha and Vukuhambe.
“Due to the critical shortages of these specialists, when we place them at each school, we consider the main area of disability.
“We are likely to send more speech therapists and audiologists at Efata, and none at Vukuhambe.
“Instead we are more likely to hire a physiotherapist for Vukuhambe and none for Efata.
“We know that a child is likely to have more than one disability, but unfortunately the full support the child is likely to receive at government school is for his main disability,” said Mtyida.
Vukuhambe school principal Zamile Jongilanga said were it not for extra support the school received from Cecilia Makiwane Hospital he did not know how some of the children would have coped.
Sobantu Mankazana was a principal at the school for the past two years, and flashbacks of Asanda’s difficulty in communicating at the school still haunts him.
“You try and use pictures to put a message across. At times he gets the message, but most of the time he does not,” said Mankazana.
But Mtyida said there was light at the end of the tunnel as the department advertised more than 79 positions for such specialists for all vacancies at district level.
The advert was recently published in Sunday newspapers and the Daily Dispatch.
The vacancies included 23 clinical psychologists, 23 occupational therapists, 23 physiotherapists and 10 speech therapists.
The next batch of 80 vacancies for specialists will be advertised at a later stage.
“We are busy identifying vacancies at these special schools and we are likely to advertise 80 posts. That will be our second phase of the recruitment drive. The situation on the ground is not good at all. But we are trying to do our bit to give these children the support they deserve,” said Mtyida.
Special needs pupils require skilled teachers
At Vukuhambe Special School in Mdantsane, there is no speech therapist to bridge the communication gap between pupils and teachers, most of whom are not trained to deal with special cases.
One pupil is now having to leave Vukuhambe, not having learnt anything at the school due to the shortage of specialised skills.
Asanda (not his real name) has merely been promoted, without actually passing, to the next grade over the years due to the crisis.
Currently there are five vacancies for specialists at Vukuhambe, including for a speech therapist who would have helped Asanda to progress academically.
The school is meant to accommodate pupils with physical disabilities, but the chief director for social support services, Thembani Mtyida, said the challenge was that some pupils had more than one disability.
Mtyida made an example of Efata School for the Blind in Mthatha and Vukuhambe.
“Due to the critical shortages of these specialists, when we place them at each school, we consider the main area of disability.
“We are likely to send more speech therapists and audiologists at Efata, and none at Vukuhambe.
“Instead we are more likely to hire a physiotherapist for Vukuhambe and none for Efata.
“We know that a child is likely to have more than one disability, but unfortunately the full support the child is likely to receive at government school is for his main disability,” said Mtyida.
Vukuhambe school principal Zamile Jongilanga said were it not for extra support the school received from Cecilia Makiwane Hospital he did not know how some of the children would have coped.
Sobantu Mankazana was a principal at the school for the past two years, and flashbacks of Asanda’s difficulty in communicating at the school still haunts him.
“You try and use pictures to put a message across. At times he gets the message, but most of the time he does not,” said Mankazana.
But Mtyida said there was light at the end of the tunnel as the department advertised more than 79 positions for such specialists for all vacancies at district level.
The advert was recently published in Sunday newspapers and the Daily Dispatch.
The vacancies included 23 clinical psychologists, 23 occupational therapists, 23 physiotherapists and 10 speech therapists.
The next batch of 80 vacancies for specialists will be advertised at a later stage.
“We are busy identifying vacancies at these special schools and we are likely to advertise 80 posts. That will be our second phase of the recruitment drive. The situation on the ground is not good at all. But we are trying to do our bit to give these children the support they deserve,” said Mtyida.
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