20 Aug 2017

Gaborone West Junior Secondary School head, Mr Godiraone Mathiba says the Care for Care Givers workshop came at the right time as it addressed the needs of parents and care takers for children with special needs.

Speaking at the Care for Care Givers seminar at Gaborone West Junior Secondary School, Mr Mathiba said it was worth noting that by the end of the seminar parents would have acquired skills and knowledge that would enable them to have a good relationship with their children.

He said parents would also be able to help their children in a relaxed atmosphere with less stress.

Mr Mathiba informed the gathering that his school has a special education unit initiated by the school after realising that they had students with special needs. He, however, noted that the unit was not fully fledged like the ones at Ramotswa, Mochudi and Tati Siding.

He added that their special education unit still experienced challenges of lack of resources, noting that they were assisting 113 students with six teacher aids and two teachers.

He noted that the special education unit provided services such as remediation and screening of students for referral to the central resource centre, adding that such students were provided with special arrangements for their final junior certificate examinations.

Mr Mathiba said the arrangement had yielded positive results as the number of students admitted to senior secondary school was increasing annually.

In 2014, he noted that they had four students admitted at senior secondary school, and that in 2015 the number increased to six while in 2016 the number increased to 25.

He appealed to parents to make arrangements to refer their children to referral centres that could assist in identifying their children’s needs. ends