The Gonzague Pierre Louis Special Learning Centre is a privately run school on the island of Rodrigues, for children whose learning difficulties prevent them benefitting from the formal education offered by their local primary school.

The GPL Centre, administered by the Trevor Huddleston Association for the Disabled (Registration No: 2246) opened in 1994, and offers an education adapted to the specific needs of each of its pupils. The Centre primarily catered for severe and profoundly deaf children who were taught to speak rather than sign as this was felt to better help the children to integrate within their family, community, and the general society.

The Centre quickly grew from an initial 3 pupils in a little tin shack to a purpose-built school with an ever-increasing number of admissions.

In 1998, a class for visually impaired was opened, and in 2014 Braille and Mobility were introduced for the first time as one of our pupils became blind.

We also accept children who have serious speech and language problems, as well as those suffering from epilepsy if they are academically able.

In 2007, a small pre-primary class was opened in the hope that some children may develop enough spoken language in time to integrate primary school at 5/6 years of age. This has been quite successful although not all of our little ones are able to make the transfer and will remain with us. Presently, there are 23 pupils in the pre-primary.

Those who leave the GPL Centre may come back as young adults for training in bee-keeping, coconut production skills, basic computer, and kitchen crafts.

In 2020, there are 59 pupils of whom
- 11 have a severe/profound hearing loss:
- 8 have a visual impairment:
- 2 are epileptic:
- 5 are autistic;
- 2 have down’s Syndrome;
- 8 have delayed speech;
- 4 have physical disabilities;
- 21 have serious learning difficulties:

These children are grouped in small classes (a maximum of 6 in a group normally) so are given almost individual attention from their teacher. Moreover, the deaf children are taken individually each day for ‘conversation’ to help them develop oral language skills.

The Centre has a Head Teacher,7 Assistant Teachers,and 3 Carers and is open daily during normal school terms from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m.

The challenges have changed over the past 26 years. During the first few years, the teaching staff developed skills to teach the deaf to talk rather than to sign. This decision was made after a great deal of consultation and discussion but was maintained as the best way to help our pupils to integrate the local community where no-one was familiar with Sign Language. This Natural Oral method owes its success to the fact that the children are fitted with the best available hearing aids and batteries, which they are encouraged to check themselves every morning. It is also important that the deaf pupils are exposed constantly to spoken language and encourage to speak, on a one to one basis, to develop their language.

The Centre also invested in a fully equipped, sound-proof audio-testing room as, previously, anyone requiring audiology had to go to Mauritius for tests.

As the reputation of the Centre grew, we were asked to help children who were not deaf but had serious speech and language problems. As a consequence of this, it was decided to open a pre-primary class in order to help younger children develop the necessary language skills to allow them to integrate their local primary school at 5 years of age. This has been fairly successful though not all of our pupils are academically able to make the transition and so remain with us.

We were then encouraged to take other children who were not able to cope with the pressures of primary school, including those suffering from epilepsy. Since our environment of small informal groups and individually based programmes removes much of the stress from learning, children stopped having epileptic crises and quickly settled and were able to develop academically at their own pace.

We also cater for those with a visual impairment. Two of those who were already with us subsequently became blind and so several members of the staff went to Mauritius during school holidays to learn the basics of Braille so that they could begin teaching the two boys. In this we have been greatly helped by Mr. Gonzague Pierre Louis who advises us and has given much of his time to help teach Mobility with white sticks. Rajesh,one of our blind pupils even carried the Queen’s Baton in preparation for the Commonwealth Games in Scotland in 2014.

As well as academic classes, we try to develop any talents the children may have in extracurricular activities such as sports, handcrafts, computer, etc. and offer the children wider experiences. We have been camping, and taken several groups to Mauritius.One of our pupils,Brigila Clair,has been selected to participate in the Paralympics Games in Tokyo this year,and 3 others have won medals at international events.

When our pupils leave the GPL Centre, many chose to follow a 3 year course at the nearby Centre Agricole Frere Remy, which teaches youngsters agriculture, animal rearing, etc. after which they may return for further training with the GPL Centre in collaboration with the Care-Co training and rehabilitation workshop. Here they learn bee-keeping and the production of crafts from coconut shell. Some are then employed by Care-Co to continue their activities among other disabled.

In 2020, we have 59 pupils aged 3 to 18, with 8 teaching staff and 3 auxiliaries. We are supported by advisors from overseas who come on a regular basis to help with specific projects e.g. hearing aids, auditory detection, pre-primary, visual impairment, etc.

GPL Centre - Pre-Primary

The pre-primary class of the GPL Centre was opened in 2005 as a number of children with delayed speech were being referred to us from primary schools. It was hoped that, if these children could be helped at an earlier age, they would be able to integrate primary school with their peers. This has been successful and most of those who do leave us to join their local school at 5/6 years of age, do well at school. However, not all are able to leave us and will remain to continue their education with us.

In 2020, there are 23 children in the pre-primary groups, under the supervision of Miss Loraise, Miss Carina and Miss Julie, with Miss Valerie as carer.

Of these pupils, most have serious speech and language delays, some associated with hearing impairment, Down ’s syndrome, Autism, etc. It is, therefore, obvious that the major part of our day is spent in encouraging the children to use their residual hearing and any basic language they have, and, through games and activities, help the children to learn and make use of new meaningful language. Songs, stories, repetitive rhymes and games all stimulate a child’s language unconsciously, so that even the most reluctant speaker finds himself joining in these fun activities.

Digital hearing aids have made a great difference to the hearing of even the most severely/profoundly deaf.

We are grateful to Miss Kathy O’Keeffe, an advisor in pre-primary and Early Learning Methods in the London area, who has given up her summer holidays for a number of years to spend time in Rodrigues, training and advising our staff, as well as those from the 31 pre-primary schools in the island who wish to benefit from her knowledge and experience.