Plan to close school for deaf kids

[Miss-Delectable]

The Herald Online **News**

THE SPECIAL unit for partially hearing pupils at Greenwood Primary School could be closed down and the pupils moved to the Reuben Birin special school in Missionvale.

The move was proposed by the Eastern Cape education department to cut its subsidy costs to the school.

The schools are the only two in Port Elizabeth which offer special classes for children with hearing problems.

Greenwood‘s governing body, however, is opposed to the proposal, claiming that Reuben Birin is too far for some of the pupils and in an unsafe environment.

The special school for children with partial hearing problems was moved from North End to Greenwood Primary – a mainstream school which caters for children with special needs – in 1991. The unit for children with special needs is funded by the department over and above the normal school subsidy.

Member of the SGB Janet Marneweck said the Reuben Birin school catered for a different category of hearing impairment. “That school is for totally deaf children and these children in Greenwood can partially hear. They can be taught verbally, but if they are sent to the school they would have to be taught in sign language,” Marneweck said.

She said the subsidy for the Greenwood special unit was about R116 000 a year and the department was more concerned about cutting costs than the development of the children.

Marneweck said Greenwood had about 64 pupils in the partially hearing classes.

“We know that nothing has been signed yet but we have tried to contact the department to let them know of our concerns, but we have not had a response from them,” she said.

Port Elizabeth education district manager Sam Snayer said a special task team had been formed to look into the plan but nothing was finalised yet. He said Reuben Birin was a school for all children with hearing problems, not just those who were totally deaf and therefore there was no need to fear that pupils who went there would be underdeveloped.

“We cannot have a duplication of services. We need to cut down on our expenditure. The number of pupils who need special care in Greenwood doesn‘t justify the existence of the special unit at the school.”

Reuben Birin school principal Theo Engelbrecht said currently the school could not accommodate more pupils.

“However, I am aware that the department is looking at options to develop capacity at the school should they decide to bring more pupils.”

 

[shel90]

Geez!

Money is more important than educating deaf children in the proper way, huh?

 

[Sasha64]

Gosh it still happening that many unit are closing down due to the govt lack of support and funding. It never gonna stop and it high time the parents think about standing up to the Govt and say NO.

I have seen similar incidents happening here and have had many parents fighting to keep the unit open but with no success or very little success. It is an ongoing problems for years and it all around the world that im aware of.

Feels sorry for all of our young deaf generations being thrown from one place to another.

There are times that I wanna shoot the Govt.

Govt :rl:

 

[GraysonPeddie]

I care so much more about education than money. Education is education and everyone, including deaf, needs education. I can't be sure that putting deaf kids in a special needs school will ensure success with education as they age up and become adults in the future, go to college, and if successful, will open up to many career oppotunities for deaf people who graduated from elementary school, middle, high school, and college.

I can say that money must be needed to fund education for all ages, including children and for those with severe hearing loss, and the government must support the children with disabilities in order for the kids to be educated.

In this case, I'm sorry for all the deaf kids who have to move to other schools.

But please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm a strong supporter of deaf children, even though I'm not deaf, but hearing impaired.

 

[Brian]

Grayson, you said it best. I find it rather disgusting that some people believe that deaf culture is more important than good education.

 

[Angel]

I care so much more about education than money. Education is education and everyone, including deaf, needs education. I can't be sure that putting deaf kids in a special needs school will ensure success with education as they age up and become adults in the future, go to college, and if successful, will open up to many career oppotunities for deaf people who graduated from elementary school, middle, high school, and college.

What IF some mainstream schools doesn't have interpreter ( like for myself when I mainstreamed I didn't have an interpreter in any classes while attending in Jr high) and how are these deaf children going to be able to learn and understand what is being said in class? and how is the teacher going to communicate with them?...Unfortunately these deaf children will be the ones that will suffer here, I don't think the goverment understands that not all deaf children can hear well, how are they going to successful in mainstreamed if there isn't anyone helping them understand what is being taught during classes...

 

[Angel]

I find it rather disgusting that some people believe that deaf culture is more important than good education.

Umm, What does Deaf Culture have to do with getting a better education?..CI doesn't always work for every child but there are a great number of successful CI children in the mainstream and a few failure ones and some of the failures end up at schools for the Deaf, now my question is, does that mean Deaf Culture was more important than getting a good education?...No, it means they weren't learning enough from where they were at....

As we all know that not every child is implanted with CI, some may hear so well with the use of their hearing aids while the others can't...Most parents want to enroll their deaf children in a better school where they will get a better education but how are they going to do that? by making sure their children are learning, if they're not then the chances may be that they're in the wrong school!!...

 

[shel90]

Umm, What does Deaf Culture have to do with getting a better education?..CI doesn't always work for every child but there are a great number of successful CI children in the mainstream and a few failure ones and some of the failures end up at schools for the Deaf, now my question is, does that mean Deaf Culture was more important than getting a good education?...No, it means they weren't learning enough from where they were at....

As we all know that not every child is implanted with CI, some may hear so well with the use of their hearing aids while the others can't...Most parents want to enroll their deaf children in a better school where they will get a better education but how are they going to do that? by making sure their children are learning, if they're not then the chances may be that they're in the wrong school!!...

I agree with u. The mainstreamed program worked for me but didnt work for my brother. He was better of at the deaf school.

 

[deafdyke]

Urmmmmmmmm, correction..........this isn't a deaf school closing. This is a Deaf self contained classroom program ending. Not the same at all!

 

[Angel]

I agree with u. The mainstreamed program worked for me but didnt work for my brother. He was better of at the deaf school.

Yeah, It happened to couple of my friends I used to know also it didn't work for me during my jr high school years that because there was NO interpreter present in my mainstreamed classes and there was absolutely no question on my mind of how am I going to become successful in a mainstreamed program without an interpreter present by not knowing what is being taught in class etc.. my parents knew I was stuggling on trying to learn but it got to the point where I was failing and was behind in my classes, so my parents found out there was another public schools that has interpreter in mainstreamed programs, so I moved to another school and mainstreamed there, and it finally worked for me but it didn't work well with the other deaf kids that I went to Jr high with, they transfer to a school for the Deaf....I guess their parents didn't want to put them in another mainstreamed programs in a different school....

 

[jillio]

Umm, What does Deaf Culture have to do with getting a better education?..CI doesn't always work for every child but there are a great number of successful CI children in the mainstream and a few failure ones and some of the failures end up at schools for the Deaf, now my question is, does that mean Deaf Culture was more important than getting a good education?...No, it means they weren't learning enough from where they were at....

As we all know that not every child is implanted with CI, some may hear so well with the use of their hearing aids while the others can't...Most parents want to enroll their deaf children in a better school where they will get a better education but how are they going to do that? by making sure their children are learning, if they're not then the chances may be that they're in the wrong school!!...

So true, Angel! I know kids that have CI that attended a school for the deaf, and I know kids without CI that wore HA and had interpreters and were mainstreamed. The question isn't so much whether they are in a mainstream class, a self contained class, or a school for the deaf. The question is, "Are they being taught in a way that allows them to learn?" For years, the research has shown that deaf kids have issues that no other child has with learning based on the fact that they are so visual, and the language differences, but when those differences are addressed in the proper way, deaf kids learn as well as a hearing student. Why oh why do we keep doing the research and then ignoring what it says?

 

[Angel]

So true, Angel! I know kids that have CI that attended a school for the deaf, and I know kids without CI that wore HA and had interpreters and were mainstreamed. The question isn't so much whether they are in a mainstream class, a self contained class, or a school for the deaf. The question is, "Are they being taught in a way that allows them to learn?" For years, the research has shown that deaf kids have issues that no other child has with learning based on the fact that they are so visual, and the language differences, but when those differences are addressed in the proper way, deaf kids learn as well as a hearing student. Why oh why do we keep doing the research and then ignoring what it says?

Right exactly Jillio! You pretty much seem to know a lot more than I do, and you're right about the question should be "are they really being taught in a way that allows them to learn? "..<< that was a good one!

 

[Cierra]

If all schools offer programs for the deaf that they won't need schools like that, I'd eat my hat.

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