Special Needs Schools in the country are in a pretty bad shape and need the intervention of government and well meaning organizations.
The Milton Margai School for the Blind and the National School for the Deaf situated at Wilkinson Road, west of Freetown, were both built in 1963, two years after the country’s independence to cater for the educational needs of visually impaired children.
These subvented schools have turned into dungeons with dilapidated facilities.
No water supply and leaked roofs are characteristic of the two schools.
The authorities at the Milton Margai School for the Blind told this medium that before the intervention of a reputable business organization in Freetown, the school authorities have to move the blind children in search of water.
They have merely lived in leaked roof tops and due to the porous nature of their school they are increasingly faced with invaders coming into the girls’ hostels.
Salieu Conteh, Headmaster for the Milton Margai School for the Blind is calling on philanthropists to help government in taking care of the needs of the school which, he noted, is struggling to cater for the needs of the blind children some who, according to him, are orphans.
The situation is also the same at the National School for the Deaf at Wilkinson Road, also in the west of Freetown.
The facilities are also hugely dilapidated and the deaf children had to cope in dilapidated structures, and in-adequate bus service to take them to school every day.
School Management Committee heads, parents and teachers serving in these schools have given their selfless service to ensure that the children take their rightful places in society.
The Milton Margai School for the Blind which is a primary school also ensures that their children are sent to other main stream secondary schools in the country after graduating to Junior and Senior Secondary school.
The school since its establishment in 1963 has produced prominent sons and daughters that have both contributed to nation building.
The situation, according to Mrs. Winifred Kamara Cole, is different at the School for the Deaf.
The School, according to her, is a little bit challenged to graduate kids into main stream schools because of their impairment
This, according to her, explains why they are hugely concentrating on vocational studies.
Both schools are appealing for support in all the areas mentioned to fully complement government’s Free Quality Education Drive.
The management of the schools is a problem even though government is subventing them.
The dilapidated facilities need urgent overhauling if not repairs.
Help these children as the motto of the Milton School for the Blind says ‘’we cannot see but we will conquer.’’