Deaf kids at school for blind

HE SI XING, 14, can see but he attends a school for the blind.

He is one of the 14 deaf students at Lighthouse School, formerly known as the Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped.

Due to the falling enrolment of blind students, the Toa Payoh school started taking in deaf students last year, and autistic children before that.

Set up in 1956 as the Singapore School for the Blind, it had some 100 blind students in the 1960s and 1970s.

Its student population started falling in the 1980s as medical advances, among other reasons, led to fewer children losing their sight, said principal Koh Poh Kwang.

At that time, the school changed its name to the Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped.

That was because fewer children were totally blind, said Mr Koh. Many were visually impaired, meaning they could not see well.

Today, the school has 22 visually handicapped students and 18 children who suffer from multiple disabilities.

Students are placed in classes according to their disabilities.

They follow either the Education Ministry's syllabus or a special programme that focuses mainly on teaching them how to live independently.

In a Primary Six class, however, two visually handicapped pupils study alongside two autistic classmates.

Si Xing is unable to speak but he reaches out to his fellow students in his own way.

For example, he helps a blind student find her way around the school.

He also communicates with an autistic student through writing.

'I enjoy going to school and I like the kids here,' he said in sign language through his teacher.