No summer school at Helen Keller

For the second year running, no summer school is being held at Helen Keller School for its pupils with sensorial impairment.

Last year the parents were informed that no summer school would be held at the school just two days before the first session was due to start. It was very unfair on pupils and parents who had planned on how best to manage the summer vacation in their children's best interests.

At the first school council meeting the parents expressed their disappointment at what had happened and even put forward proposals to the Education Division to avoid a repetition this summer. However no adequate provisions were taken and the parents of the six students who wished to attend summer school were informed that no staff had been found.

I am afraid that children in special schools are considered less equal than their peers in the mainstream. While we read in the papers of the various activities at the many Skola Sajf centres, nobody in the Education Division is unduly worried that there are other children with greater needs who must be stimulated in the long summer months to do things other children can do with greater ease.

If the school staff do not feel they have the right incentives to work in the summer, the authorities should seek to recruit student teachers, student nurses and student therapists to do the job under the supervision of one or two trained staff from Helen Keller School or elsewhere.

However, for such a scheme to succeed there must be proper advance planning with the would-be summer staff introduced to the children throughout the scholastic year. This proposition was put forward by the school council to the authorities, but fell on deaf ears.

The truth is that Helen Keller School has never had the trained staff it deserves - teachers who either retire or take up posts elsewhere within the department are not replaced. I would be surprised if the next scholastic year commences with more than two trained teachers on the premises!