Special needs centres grossly under-resourced

Baboki Kayawe | Tuesday June 27, 2017 17:03

The Botswana Society for Human Development (BSHD) had convened a speech and communication disorder forum convened by at the University of Botswana over the weekend. Authorities at the Community Resource Centre say this has escalated costs of special education as well as accentuated complexities in dealing with conditions that could have been easily managed had diagnosis and intervention been availed earlier.

Worst still, Duduetsang Moroka, an official from the centre was worried that as the curricula gets complicated, late interventions for special needs learners further compound their comprehension, and consequently disabling them to complete their studies compared to their counterparts in mainstream education.

This has left many in the lurch as only a few Batswana can afford to access private service providers in the spectrum of diagnosis and interventions needed for such learners. These include speech therapists, speech pathologists, and audiologists amongst others.

Moroka added that the country’s special education headquarters in Tlokweng is facing dire resource shortages of such expertise, and its mandate is adversely affected.

“This is also a referral point for learners all over the country because the two supporting centres in Francistown and Kanye are far worse in terms of resources. They don’t have a single speech therapist at the moment,” she said.  

Despite the resource limitations, Moroka encouraged schools not to despair and seek services well on time as the centre is gravely worried by an influx of learner referrals at examinations time at all levels of study. This she said is not sufficient intervention as the only assistance students get is extra exam time, the use of a scribe and allowance to take oral exams.

The BSHD in partnership with the Botswana stuttering association (BOSA) organised the forum under the theme ‘Understanding Communication Disorders: Language and Speech Disorders’. They identified and explained the different communication disorders and brought awareness to this form of disability, explored the different forms of speech and language disorders such as stuttering.

It also made attendees understand assessment, early intervention and remedial strategies for learners with communication disorders, in addition to elaborating on the work of speech therapists and speech pathologists as well as other professionals in the field.