Remedial schools are designed to assist children
Remedial schools are designed to assist children who require full-time remediation, either for shorter periods until they are ready to move to a mainstream schooling environment, or throughout their schooling experience.
In recent years, more and more children have been found to have learning disabilities and these children are not managing to keep afloat in the traditional mainstream schooling system.
More than half of South African learners by grade 4 cannot read at an appropriate level, and math scores are dropping drastically. The need for remedial schools is increasing and without them, many students would be left behind. Remedial schools offer children a more tailored learning experience in order to help them in specific areas of need.
Children can fall behind in core skills (reading, writing and math) despite having average or even sometimes above average intellectual abilities. Teachers in remedial schools have specialised training in dealing with children with special needs and are more equipped to support them through different therapies offered through the school.
As an ABA (applied behaviour analysis) instructor, I work with children with a variety of different support needs. For a lot of these kids, when it comes time to finding a school that will cater for their needs, remedial schools are often better suited. We work together with the teachers and therapists in the school. An important part of this is by creating an IEP (individualised education plan) for the child that will ensure they are set up for success and are getting the intervention they require.
It is important to detect early on when a child needs to be placed in a remedial school. The earlier the intervention, the better the chance they have for catching up and being ready to move to a mainstream school. By grade 4, the gap in education becomes larger and it becomes increasingly difficult to catch up to their peers.
Its easy to see why educators need to make every effort to break down walls and barriers to learning and go the extra mile to ensure that each child is equipped to continue through their schooling career successfully.
Remedial school teachers take a very patient approach to teaching, they focus on each individual child’s strengths and weaknesses and ensure that the child is learning at a pace appropriate to them. They are able to identify which specific areas the child is having difficulty with and work with them one-on-one when needed. By creating more motivating work environments, the teacher increases the child’s interest which encourages more active participation from them.
In summary, it is important to pick up early on when a child needs to be placed in a remedial school so that they are given the opportunity to catch up to their peers and get through the rest of their schooling experience without additional difficulty.
