Limay SPED students, recipients of Orica Community Partnership Program

LIMAY, Bataan – Limay Elementary School is a pioneer and one of the few schools in Bataan that caters to students with special needs. The school has a total population of 1700 students of which 66 belong to Special Education (SPED). The SPED classes are intended for those students with visual impairment, hearing impairment, mentally challenged, intellectual disability, autism, as well as those who are fast and slow learners.

The school lacks educational materials and equipment and has insufficient fund to support the needs of the teachers and the students. Funding comes from the Department of Education which is then divided with the rest of the public schools all over the country. Limay Elementary School’s proximity to Limay Factory has been a major consideration in choosing it to be a beneficiary of Orica’s Community Partnership Program.

On June 8, 2015 another Orica Community Partnership initiative has been completed. The turn over activity was held at the school grounds after the flag raising ceremony. Emi Gabinete, Sustainability Advisor of Limay site, gave the overview on how the project was realized while John Philip de Jesus, QSHEC and Security Lead of Limay Site, shared some safety tips to the students emphasizing to them that playing is normal for all children they just have to be extra careful to avoid hurting themselves.

Mrs. Marylyn Dizon, the school principal, together with the rest of the teachers were very grateful to Orica for choosing them as beneficiary of the Orica Community Partnership Project. She showed the Braille Dictionary to the audience and said “ this is the dictionary for our visually impaired students, you cannot see anything printed on it, but our blind students will use them to read”.

Aside from the school materials and equipment donated by Orica, one of the SPED teachers was sponsored to attend a Sign Language Training at the Philippine School for the Deaf.