Studies reveal there is an unequivocal connection between a good quality preschool education and later success in life, said keynote speaker Professor Jonathan Jansen, Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Stellenbosch, at the 85th annual general meeting of the League of the Friends of the Blind (LOFOB), on Saturday July 21.
The year 2018 not only marks 85 years of service, Lofob also celebrates surviving a world war, overcoming the hardships of the apartheid era, soaring through turbulent economic times and above all, evolving from an organisation which once offered social welfare to one which is a leading education and training provider in the blindness sector.
Heidi Volkwijn, Lofob manager of Youth and Adults Services, said: “We remember the efforts of an icon and co-founder of Lofob, the late Isaac Jacobs. As a young blind man, no one knew the struggles of the blind community better than him. Because of racial segregation during the apartheid era, Isaac Jacobs was denied access to the only school for the blind that existed then and at the age of 17 still had no formal education. He and others worked tirelessly to uphold the belief of an inherent right to equal education for all.”
Armand Bam, executive director, sketched Lofob’s background, from when they started in 1946 at a hostel in Plumstead, but had to move from there under the Group Areas Act. “In 1954 six women were working at Lofob and in 1979 Philip Bam became general secretary. In 1981 a hostel for 50 men was built and in 1985 the development shifted to include occupational therapists and social workers.”
Mr Bam said an integral part in history was Lofob’s service to society by starting the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes in 1988. “We can claim unashamedly to be leaders in that field because there are only about three organisations that offer ECD services in the country for the blind and visually impaired. We go out to parents from the child’s birth already to start this service.”
He said to date Lofob had 217 clients – 163 youths and adults and 54 children. “The youngest client is three months old and we have 14 children in pre-school.”
Professor Jansen, who is also a former Steenberg resident, commended Lofob for working with small children. “I have been studying education all my life and I would like to speak about the difference between sight and insight.”
Professor Jansen was born in Montague and lived with his maternal grandfather Stemmet Johnson. “But not long after I was born we had to move because of the Group Areas Act and at the same time my father lost his plot in Denver Road, Lansdowne, so we moved to Steenberg. As a child, I knew Oupa Johnson, as being a blind person. Now how did he turn blind? The doctor said there was no anatomical and no physiological reason for him going blind. The optical nerve was in place and it was functioning and the only other reason they suspected (for his blindness) was psychosomatic blindness.
“In other words when they took away his property in Montague and placed him in the ‘lokasie’, he went blind for the rest of his life.”
Professor Jansen said he never understood the trauma his grandfather was going through, but he remembered his aunts saying “pa wou nie sien nie”.
Professor Jansen said when they lived in Steenberg, they visited him in Montague.
““He was always pleasant and optimistic, sitting on a box in front of a ‘hokkie’. And people would come to him for advice.”
Professor Jansen said even though his grandfather did not have sight, he had insight into the human condition. “Big difference between people who can see and people who can see deeper
“This is also the difference between knowledge and wisdom or schooling and education. He didn’t go to university, but he had incredible knowledge and understanding of people.”
Professor Jansen pointed out that Lofob had recognised that people who were blind or partially sighted needed help – which is sight. When they did something about it by forming this organisation, they had insight.
On Lofob’s insight to extend programmes for early learning education in all areas including rural areas, Professor Jansen said: “Studies prove that there is an unequivocal connection between a good quality preschool education and later success in life – there was no debate there. In other words take two four-year- old children, for example; if one child goes to a high quality preschool and the other one goes to a preschool at a back of someone’s house, when it comes to Grade 1 there is already a huge gap between the two children. The bad news is that gap never closes over the next 12 years of schooling.”
He said that was why many university students coudn’t even write a letter.
Professor Jansen said with the high number of drop-outs between Grades 2 and 12 in areas such as Lavender Hill, a quality pre-school education was necessary.
He ended off, advising everyone that insight was making sure that “my child is not safe until every other child is safe”.