Nhloso's story
Nhloso
Umzinyathi District, KwaZulu ProvinceSouth Africa
My Story
In 2004, Nhloso was 7 and was studying in Grade 1 at Pomeroy Primary School, his village’s only primary school. Educators from the school’s support team noticed that Nhloso was having difficulties learning and communicating with his fellow-classmates and teachers. They advised his parents to visit the local Church of Scotland Hospital, 35 km away, which would then let them stay overnight and provide transport to the specialist hospital for hearing tests. This was quite a challenge, and meant that they were away from home for a couple of days.
Pomeroy School’s support team then spent time convincing Nhloso’s parents that hearing tests could help their son's education in the future. However the hospital’s speech therapist unfortunately left the hospital before sending the report, so the school relied on Nhloso’s mother’s understanding of what had been said about her son’s hearing.
Educators at Pomeroy School appealed to the Special Education Services, 50 km away from Pomeroy. The school provided the Special Education Services with all the necessary documents; details of Nhloso's academic history, his latest school reports, samples of written class work, a copy of his birth certificate, etc. His health reports were also included as well as summaries of his visits to the hospital. This report suggested that Nhloso had suffered from meningitis at birth.
The Special Education Services contacted the new speech therapist in February 2005. After locating Nhloso’s file, she found that he had been diagnosed with bilateral hearing loss in the severe to profound range for high frequencies. Based on this, the speech therapist advised Nhloso’s parents to go to Pietermaritzburg for a hearing aid evaluation.
After a few visits to Pietermaritzburg’s specialist hospital, which is far away from Pomeroy, Nhloso learnt that his hearing aids had been molded and would be fitted in June 2005. He was overjoyed! The speech therapist had carefully explained to Nhloso and his family that the hearing aids were not the whole answer to Nhloso’s hearing impairment but were a positive step in the right direction. Unfortunately after another overnight trip to the hospital, the hearing aids turned out to be too big and could not be fitted!
Until this point, Nhloso and his mother had communicated using home signs and because of this, speech therapists together with the school educators felt that her son would be happier and able to communicate more effectively if he went to a special school for the deaf where he could learn South African Sign Language (SASL). This school would be a residential school and Nhloso’s father did not want Nhloso to leave.
The Special Education Services provided Pomeroy School’s educators with materials on SASL, information on deafness and a video to help Nhloso learn SASL. Unfortunately the video could not be viewed, as the school did not have a video player. After a few months, the educators, following advice from Special Education Services, also set up a meeting between Nhloso's father and a respected member of the community who was deaf. It had taken some time to find someone, as none of the teachers knew any deaf people at this point, however, finally, Nhloso's father met a deaf brother and sister, togther with an SASL interpreter. The young man had studied at Vuleka Special School and the University of Witwatersrand.This really helped Nhloso's parents, especially his father, to understand how learning South African Sign Language and going to a special school could help. It was clear to everyone that deaf people can carry a stronger message than departmental officials!
Nhloso's parents agreed that a special school would offer Nhloso more opportunities than continuing to study at Pomeroy. The choice of special schools in KwaZulu Natal is very limited and, luckily, the one Nhloso’s parents chose for him had a vacancy and they were prepared to accept him. The Special Education Services educator who had been following Nhloso’s case went on a 4-week holiday, happy with the knowledge that Nhloso would be at school, learning, making friends and being taught by people who were aware of his needs.
When she came back, she visited the mainstream school to confirm that Nhloso was admitted to the special school. Nhloso had not started! His mother had been unable to provide the special school with Nhloso's birth certificate as it had been eaten by pests, so he wasn't able to register! The educator found a copy of Nhloso’s birth certificate in her files and he was finally able to register. His mother and the school principal were then able to accompany him on his first day at school. It was all a bit strange at first, all three felt like outsiders. Everyone was signing and the interpreter had not yet arrived. Although teachers, fluent in isiZulu and SASL arrived and helped them later, it was still a challenge to explain to Nhloso that his trusted mother was leaving him and would fetch him a few months later.
Nhloso is happy at his new school and goes to see his parents during the holidays. The Special Services educator has confirmed that Nhloso is learning quickly. He has mastered SASL rapidly and now signs fluently will all his new friends!
This is a typical scenario of assisting learners with disabilities in rural areas, that officials from Education, Welfare, Health and NGOs deal with continuously. This case has had a successful outcome in that Nhloso is happy at his new school and does not want to return to the local mainstream school. However how many similar learners are “lost” due to lack of capacity or tenacity on behalf of support service officials. Four formal visits were made to the school to investigate the progress of this learner; the number of telephone calls to the school and to CoSH is too numerous to be recalled. This school is fortunate as many informal, quick visits were also made as it is located on a major route travelled frequently by the official. PGSES consists of 8 officials who are expected to provide support to some 480 schools. Pomeroy school is also fortunate to have educators of the tenacity of Ms Hlela.
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