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A special school will offer small classes in suitable buildings, have teachers who specialise in teaching disabled children or children with special needs and having all the necessary equipment to make life easier in general.  Children with similar needs are understanding to one another, show lots of  love and affection and go at their own pace.

There are not enough special schools in South Africa to help our underprivlged community who have children with special needs.  Special schools are often far from home and parents then have a problem in getting their children to school.  If there is no way that the child can get to school, the child stays home and receives no education.  The child is then forgotten and left to make the most of his/her life.

On this website our team is privileged to be able to talk about a special school in South Africa.  I go to FOREST TOWN SCHOOL FOR CEREBRAL PALSY CHILDREN.  The School was founded in 1948.   The school caters for children with cerebral palsy needs and children who need specialised education.  The school is run by a team of  special people who care for the disabled.  The children receive a good education, which can either be academic or practical depending on the child's capabilities.  The school also teaches life skills.  The school  has all the facilities to help a disabled child.  How?  It caters for speech, therapy, psychological needs and health.  If we did not have schools like Forest Town School,  disabled children would be left locked up at home and left to cope.  The most important period of a child's life is  the first 8 years of their life.  You need  to give lots of imput and help in making that child.   The children in South Africa are being given a knock.  Why?  Our Education department says that children can only start school at the age of  7.  This is wrong.  It should be at the age of  6 or even 5 and the child must be given maximum attention.  The development can be great between the ages of  5 and 7 and then our children in South Africa would not be so behind and battling to cope in classes.  Teachers are quick to give medication to make a child concetrate, for example Ritalin.  This is totally unnecessary in most cases.  If a child is taught to concentrace and work from the age of 5, the child would develop far better.  Ritlin is the easy way out for teachers that just have too many children in a class.  This is why children with learning disabilities should be given the opportunity to learn in a special school, where they are helped and not neglected.