How and what are the children taught?

St Joseph’s is the only school in West Africa that offers primary education and language acquisition according to the Maternal Reflective Method (MRM).

MRM, also known as the Oral Reflective Method, encourages hearing-impaired children to speak instead of relying solely on sign language. In conjunction with MRM, the students are also encouraged to develop their lip-reading skills, as few people in society will be able to communicate with them via sign language.

Students at St Joseph’s are taught a number of skills that will help them be active members of society as adults. These include agriculture, sewing, weaving, gara cloth dyeing, catering, IT  and hair dressing.

Students training in agriculture are able to get critical hands-on experience at the St Joseph’s working farm, located about three miles from the school. Here, older students, guided by an agriculture specialist learn how to raise livestock like goats and chickens and how to cultivate crops like cassava, bananas, rice, pineapples and yams. The aim is for the farm  to produce sufficient produce to feed the children at the school and to sell the surplus at the local markets. For these reasons the farm is critical to St Joseph’s objective of preparing  the students to become fully functioning members of society.