Connie Selebogo
Anita Manyike (16) battles to hold a pen firmly to write out her schoolwork. Access to a computer – a government grant from the Department of Communications to her school – could not have come at a better time.
For the past six years Manyike’s handwriting has deteriorated as a result of her physical condition – she suffers from muscular dystrophy.
Access to a computer is, for the wheelchair-bound Manyike, a dream come true.
“I never thought that I would be able to use a computer in my life. It makes my schoolwork easier, I am able to type out my homework without a lot of effort.”
Manyike is one of the learners at the Itembilehle School for the Disabled in Primrose, Johannesburg – a beneficiary of the Department of Communications multimedia centre project piloted in all nine provinces of the country.
The project focuses on three categories – the deaf, blind and learners with physical disabilities – and three schools in each province have been identified.
Each centre is to be managed by a coordinator, who is a full-time teacher employed by the Department of Education.
Some of the selected teachers have already been trained as coordinators and their functional activities will be extended to include administration, management, marketing the centre and training the students and teachers.
“Our training took only three months and I hope to start working as soon as we come back from the winter holidays,” says Zoleka Khumalo, a full-time teacher at Itembilehle school.
Khumalo is one of the 27 teachers selected to facilitate the programme. She believes that disabled children are the most disadvantaged in terms of the education they receive and they need to be given better skills in order to help them find better jobs.
“Because of their disability, they are denied access to good education. Some of them cannot afford to go to tertiary institutions because of their bad financial backgrounds and they are therefore being discriminated against,” says Khumalo.
Itembilehle school started in 1994 and has admitted about 150 students from different areas of Johannesburg and other provinces. These children suffer from various physical disabilities, including dwarfism. Some have been involved in major road accidents.
“Basic preparations have been done in the Northern province, North West, KwaZulu- Natal, Mpumalanga and other provinces, even though some schools such as St Martins de Porres in Port Shepstone have already received exclusive sponsorships from other big companies.”
The department has already spent up to R4,5-million of the R9,6-million to complete the first phase of training, computer installations, furniture and site refurbishment.
Broadcast projects manager in the Department of Communications Nonhlanhla Nkosi says the department’s aim is to prepare disabled learners for entrance into some of the training programmes run by the department and allow them further practical IT training at technical colleges, technikons and other institutions of higher learning.
According to Nkosi, the centres will expand to accommodate all types of disabilities and will also accommodate non-disabled pupils.
Olive Khumalo, principal at Itembilehle school, says the project will give opportunities to all interested people and will fight the level of illiteracy in the nearby townships.
“The project will also boost our income because we will charge our interested community very reasonably in order to generate some income for our school,” says Khumalo.
The broadcasting unit in the Department of Communications is currently conducting the project workshops in all provinces to make it easier for those who will be responsible for the implementation of the project.