The Transoranje Institute for Special Education operates nationally, catering for children with disabilities from all regions. Established in 1947, the Institute is based in Pretoria-West as the sponsoring body for the following schools:

• Transoranje-School for the deaf
• Prinshof School for the visually impaired
• Transvalia-School for epileptics
• Sonitus School for the hard of hearing
• Martie du Plessis High School for the celebral palsied

The Institute was established in order to raise funds to help the schools cover their operating costs, as the facilities and personnel needed for specialist schools are expensive. The Institute transfers 70% of its income to the schools for this purpose.

Metrofile supports educating the children of our future, and realises the special needs of a part of our community. Metrofile has supported 1780???/ beneficiaries to date, resulting in an overall contribution of R521???

The first school established by the Institute is the Trans-oranje School for the Deaf in 1954. The Institute realised the growing need for schools for children with other disabilities, as a result of appeals from parents of children with other disabilities. As result, four more schools were opened.

Collectively, the schools educate 1652 learners, with more than a third of the families living below the poverty level. The Martie du Plessis High School is based in Bloemfontein, with the rest of the schools being based in Pretoria.

As these are specialised schools, the children enrol from throughout the country and a large percentage are housed at the hostels these schools provide.

All these schools have been successful in providing a sound education to the hearing impaired people of our community and have taken pleasure in watching them make a difference to the community in furthering their tertiary education and achieving career success. Without a specialised education, the children would have had to depend on grants from the government or private sector.

Contact

Tel: (012) 320 7644
Fax: (011) 320 7712
Email: toibo@nhk.co.za

The Transoranje-School for the Deaf

The Transoranje-School for the Deaf specialises in educating the deaf and caring for their wellbeing. Based in Pretoria-West, the school educates 245 learners with profound hearing loss. All young learners with severe hearing loss are in need of specialised education and support and this is where the Transoranje-School comes in, enrolling learners are early as 3 years of age. The school focuses on learning language and formal communication skills for specialist educators and therapists. Lipreading and writing skills are taught from an early age.

The staff compliment at the school consists of occupational therapists, audiologists, speech therapists, psychologists, medical personnel and training staff. As the learners’ needs are specialised, the learners are divided into groups of 7 to 1 teachers, which is the reason a full staff compliment is required. The school aims to see all learners entering the economic working environment and as a result adheres to The Gauteng Department of Education’s Programme for primary and secondary education up to Grade 12.

The Trans-oranje Schools ensures an academically well rounded approach to its educational programme, offering languages, mathematics, accounting and commercial subjects along with practical subjects, woodwork and hospitality studies. The staff ensure a motivated ‘deaf friendly’ environment incorporating religious study and life skills as part of the programme.