SAB provides teaching tools for blind children

Bennet Nkadimeng, district manager, said that, SAB's national Corporate Social Investment strategy prioritised promoting both education and job creation. In light of this, SAB welcomed this important opportunity to assist courageous children and dedicated teachers who worked tirelessly to ensure that the learners at the Open air School were able to make a meaningful contribution not only to their immediate communities but also to the country as a whole.

Regarded as a ground breaking educational aid for visually impaired learners, Track-Tiles are based on Lego-type blocks. Each of the tiles has printed and raised Braille code on their surfaces, allowing learns to both identify them and arrange them into sentences. They provide a unique bridge and a shorter route to Braille literacy for disabled children. In addition, these innovative blocks also facilitate learning of the Nemeth Braille Code for mathematics and the Braille code for music notation.

Innovative learning tool

The departmental head of the Open Air school, Claude Pillai, said that both teachers and pupils were extremely excited at the introduction of this innovative learning tool. The sets would be used by learners in Grades R,1, 2 and 3.

She said that Tack-Tiles were extremely practical and were heavy and both big enough and easy for children to handle. The Tack-Tiles fit into tray and are therefore not disturbed when knocked over, alleviating the frustration of children having to start assembling sentences all over again if the blocks should fall off a desk.

However, she said the most important thing of all was that the use of Tack-Tiles allowed both sighted and visually impaired learners to be taught together. She said it was a major concern that blind learners were isolated. Tack-Tiles would provide an important means of integrating these learners into the learning environment.

She said that the Tack-Tiles would also fill another important gap for the many Open Air School learners who excelled at music. Most played by ear and were unable to record any of their own compositions at present. Tack-Tiles would give them access to written music for the first time.

Situated in Glenwood, the Open Air School pprovides education for 279 children with special educational needs from pre-primary to matric. Learners' disabilities include cerebral palsy, visual and hearing impairment, impairments suffered as a result of injury and hand/eye coordination problems. Learners come from all social and economic backgrounds and race groups. Many of the school's pupils have excelled academically as well as in sport and cultural activities.

Although the school is supported by the Department of Education, it relies on assistance such as that provided by SAB, to gain access to the sophisticated and extremely expensive learning aids needed to constantly improve the education of the children in its care.