Education Minister, Naledi Pandor visits Pioneer Printers responsible for printing school material for the visually impaired nationally.

P.S Please receive background information to the programmes offered at the Pioneer School as well as the printing services offered by the Pioneer printers that Minister Pandor is visiting.

The School for the Blind in Worcester was established on 15 June 1881.

The name was changed to the Pioneer School for the Visually Impaired during it's centenary year.

The Pioneer School provides
(a) education to blind learners, learners with specific learning disabilities and partially sighted learners from Grade 1 to 12;
(b) education and programmes to visually impaired learners with multiple disabilities including deafblindness;
(c) pre-school education;
(d) technical training and preparation for a career;
(e) parent guidance from birth to parents of visually impaired children;
(f) hostel accommodation;
(g) programmes and training in special skills which are essential to visually impaired learners, such as mobility and orientation, life skills and braille;
(h) sport and cultural programmes, including activities which are specially adapted for the visually impaired;
(i) library services in the special reading media for the visually impaired.

In order to achieve these aims, the services of the Pioneer Printers are essential, because blind learners have to use specially adapted books and learning material. The Pioneer Printers are part of the Pioneer School and it is their task to provide -
(a) books and study material in braille, on cassette and in large print for blind learners in the Western Cape and in other schools for the blind all over the country;
(b) study material and reference books for students at universities and colleges;
(c) literature, such as novels, the Bible, etc, for learners and adults who are blind countrywide;
(d) magazines and newspapers, such as Finesse, Huisgenoot, Sarie, the Sunday Times, the Worcester Standard, Rapport, Bread on the Water, Kerkbode, Slingervel and others, are produced on cassette for blind people all over the country regularly;
(e) examination papers for the Department of National Education and the Western Cape Education Department are transcribed into braille and produced on cassettes by Pioneer Printers. This unit has the specialised expertise to produce material for Mathematics, Music, Physical Science and Computer Science in braille.

The production of literature in braille is very expensive and it is sponsored by the Institute for the Blind for individual learners and schools at a rate of 67c in the Rand. This puts a heavy burden on the Institute for the Blind financially.

Included on the staff of the Pioneer Printers are -
6 blind employees,
1 deafblind employee and
2 physically disabled employees.

The staff is under the management of Mr Schalk Hugo and works closely with the staff of the Pioneer School, whose principal is Dr Petrus Botes. Both School and Printers are under the auspices of the Western Cape Education Department.