Rohana Special School

The Suwa Sara Quality Circle conducted an one-day medical clinic on 09-July-2011. There were 07 clinics provided for Special Education children in the Matara Educational Zone. These clinics included: eye clinic, mobile dental clinic with new facilities, skin, mental health, and ENT clinics. Nearly 250 children participated in this clinic. Dr. Ekanayaka, who is the executive director of the Rohana Deaf and Blind Welfare Association, is also the consultant of this clinic.

Rohana Special School is proud to announce the publication of a Teachers’ Handbook for all teachers working in Sinhala-medium Special Schools and Units in Sri Lanka. This resource was developed by Anne East and Derek Roger (from Oak Lodge School for the Deaf, London, England) working with the Senior Teachers at Rohana.

The first section of the book consists of Training Modules outlining what a new teacher needs to know when they first start working with deaf children. The second section offers Teaching Methods and suggestions for the classroom work to encourage the children’s language and literacy skills. The third section sets out aims and guidelines for an Observation System. This is an essential tool in developing and maintaining a high standard of teaching and learning. The Observation Form identifies ‘Excellent’, and ‘Good’ teaching and ‘Areas to improve’. The Action Plan offers a way for teachers to support and learn from each other.

More than two hundred people attended the book launch at Rohana in July, including representatives from 32 other special schools and units, many of whom have now started to use the book to improve the education in their schools. Next year we are hoping to have a Tamil version of the book so that it can be used in Tamil-speaking areas of Sri Lanka. Rohana School has become a centre of excellence for deaf education in Sri Lanka, and this expertise is now being made available to others.

Download the Handbook here: Sinhala Teachers’ Handbook for Deaf Children

Rohana Special School is proud to have won the National Productivity Secretariat’s School Productivity Award for the second year in a row. But this year we came in 1st Place, beating out all other schools in the Matara district. We are very proud of this award!

The new building is a great asset to the Rohana School, and was kindly donated by a German-Sri Lanka charity, Freundeskreis-Neuwied-Matara e.V. and coordinated by Sagara Abegunewardena.

The building has equipped the school with a large assembly hall, which is being used for special events at the school, dance lessons, and assembly.

Upstairs, there are 5 new purpose-built classrooms, for the subjects of Art, Maths, History, English and Geography, as well as a large room which is split for smaller classes.

More information can be found at Tsunami-Kinder-Matara.

This website is now running the WordPress 3.0 engine. Hopefully from now on it’ll be easier for us to write updates on what’s going on as well as upload pictures. E-mail us if you have any suggestions!