School for children with disabilities in Botswana faces possible closure

From Mmegi online in Botswana Nov. 25:

While Botswana were marking The day of People Living with Disabilities Nov. 24, students at the 'I AM Special Education Society' in Tlokweng were facing uncertainty about their school's future.

The school was threatened with closure last week when their water was disconnected for failure to pay rates and it was feared that the electricity would be cut next year.

Yesterday, a third of the students did not turn up at school because the parents were not aware that a parent rescued the school.

Teachers have not received their salaries since October and the coordinator of the school, Sifelane Sibanda, said that they were still there because of their commitment to the pupils.

"It is not the first time that teachers have not been paid. This has happened several times. It is only that the teachers here are committed and if it were for the money we would not be here. It would be unfair to deny these children an education because of money," Sibanda said.

He admitted that the school has run out of funds. He revealed that the school has been awarded a plot by the Tlokweng Land Board, which must be developed in 24 months but the way things are it might as well be another dream that will never be realised.

According to Sibanda, the school was registered as a society by parents of children schooling there after the founder abandoned it in 2001, because they could not take their children to public schools.

"There is no specific donor that we depend on. We depend only on donors and individuals but they come and go... which is problematic. Now we just depend on the parents of children who continue to contribute to the day to day running of the school. "We appeal to the public to donate or support us in any way so that we keep the school running," he said.

The school is a centre for children with special needs, more especially those with mental retardation, Down syndrome, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, autism and dyslexia. It currently has three qualified specialists in mental retardation including the coordinator who is also the head teacher.

The students are trained to do domestic chores. There is also academics training. "We teach them live skills so that they can take care of themselves and we have seen a change in their behavior," Sibanda said.

He indicated that some children show improved capabilities and this year they registered a student for the Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) who passed all the subjects with a third grade, which is a tremendous achievement for the whole school. The school has a bus which collects children to and from their homes, and an Auditory Integration Training machine which activates children's brains to receive sounds. First National Bank (FNB), who also sent the coordinator and one teacher for training in South Africa donated the combi and the machine.

"We have seen changes in children who could not talk before using the machine who now can take instructions and talk," Sibanda said.

However, his regret is that the Botswana centre always excludes them during the commemoration of The Day of People Living with Disabilities.