Moremi III Memorial Primary School yesterday hosted an inaugural Christmas party for its special education class to celebrate the transitioning of their special needs students to a higher level.
Sponsored by the Machaba Safaris, the memorable event was held under the theme ‘Celebrating our differences, hashtag re a kgona’ meaning we can. The party was held to raise awareness for the public to recognise that children with disabilities are not in-able but seek commitment, love and support in order to acquire skills and improve their lives.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Moremi III Memorial School Head, Ngonda Setlhare said the event was a special one since it was the first ever hosted for the special education class. Setlhare noted that a Christmas or graduation party for the special class had only been a dream to them before Machaba Safaris made it come true.
The school has a total of 1042 students out of which 138 are those of special needs. Setlhare indicated that they have four levels that the special students go through starting with the first one called the stimulation level where students are taught living skills from the beginning some of which include learning how to use the toilet on their own. “After perfection, the student will graduate to the second level called the academics level where they are taught letter sounds, numbers and syllables,” she added.
On the third level, she said the students now transition to the main stream being standard 1,2 and 3 where they learn the syllabus before further transitioning to level 4, which is the pre-vocation level where they are taught hand craft skills.
The head teacher revealed that out of the 138 students, 11special needs students have joined the main stream.
For his part, the Machaba Safaris Chief Financial Officer David Kind reminded that each person is different though that does not mean that they are unable to achieve their goals. He added that each person grows up with unique dreams and further advised the students to discover who they are, what they are good at and work hard to achieve those dreams.
Meanwhile Sub Inspector Segopolo Lefatshe of the Gender and Child Protection Unit said the growth and development of special needs children depends heavily on the love and support they receive from their community and loved ones.
He stated that disability is not inability encouraging parents and caretakers not to give up on their disabled children but to love and support them. He added that a disabled child is a child like any other and deserves to be loved and not discriminated.
Lefatshe said this after mentioning that some people take advantages of these children and abuse them sexually or even send them to do wrong activities like sending them to buy alcohol or to steal. Lefatshe however warned that such issues are punishable by the law.
