Our Staff

Priscilla Mtshalala – Grade 4, Nomalizo Fina – Grade 3, Cynthia Matika – Group 1&2, Joy Selana – Foundation Phase HODWe have a happy, dedicated and caring staff who work under very difficult circumstances. Our buildings don’t have enough classrooms to cater for the recommended number of 8-10 children per classroom. There can be up to 30 special needs children in a classroom, so life at Amasango is not dull! Despite this, most of the teaching staff take on work over and above their job description to care for the kids, including conducting home visits and counselling as well as accompanying them to the clinic or hospital when they are ill. HIV/AIDS trained teachers also support children during AIDS tests.

Isaac Leisa – security, Cynthia Matika – grade 1&2, Vumile Mazinyo – security, Caen Nkatsha – securityTo date the Department of Education has allocated 10 non-teaching staff posts to us. These include: a driver, a cleaner, a cook, 3 security guards, a finance officer and 3 class aides. Class aides or teacher assistants are urgently needed in all the classes and without the assistance of student Volunteers from Rhodes University and longer term international Volunteers we would not be able to operate as successfully as we do. The security guards were all previously trained to work in the forensic unit at the Fort England Mental Hospital. Ordinary security guards would not cope with the volatility of our children. These men need to exercise extreme self-control throughout each day.

We also have several full-time local volunteers who receive monthly honoraria as we cannot afford to employ them. Four work as class aides and one assists in the principal’s office with administration as well as acting as the First Aid and social work assistant.

Clearly, a school with learner profiles such as those who attend Grahamstown Amasango Career School needs a full-time psychologist and social worker. Unfortunately the Department of Education has not to date allocated these critical posts to the school. Neither has the school been able to fund them through donations, but we continue to hope that we will be able to have these in place in the near future.