Thuthukani Special School

Thuthukani Special School in Empangeni is a school for learners with severe to profound intellectual disability aged 6 to 19 years. The school was founded in February 1981. The school has grown significantly over the years and currently we are educating as many learners as we can physically cater for. Our current enrolment is 439 learners, and we have a steadily growing waiting list.   We are based on Dover Sugarcane Farm just outside of Empangeni and we accept learners from Empangeni, Richards Bay, eNseleni, Kwa-Mbonambi, eSikhaweni, Ngwelezana, and other rural areas.   The learners are all severely to profoundly intellectually disabled, come from multicultural, multi-language backgrounds and often have more than one disability. Many of our learners have ASD. The main aims of the school program are to build our learners’ self-esteem and functional ability to ensure that they leave the school as independent as possible, equipped with skills they can use to contribute to their communities   Thuthukani is a value driven school. Our parents and staff collectively have identified core values that we all aspire to. These values form the background to our teaching and learning. Every adult and child in the school know, understand and live these values.   To ensure that our learners are included and not segregated from their non-disabled peers, we have an active sport and cultural program where our learners can compete against both disabled and non-disabled learners. We do not provide a boarding facility at our school. This allows our learners to have similar “out of school” experiences as their peers and assists with better community inclusion. Many of our learners are assisted with taking public transport to and from school daily.    

Empangeni, South Africa