A TRUE CALLING

A defining moment at school changed Jevonn Cloete’s life. Now he’s excelling as a special-needs teacher

- ROXANNE MOONEYS

THERE’S no shortage of tragic tales of children with learning difficulties who fall through the cracks in an education system ridiculed with issues – overcrowding in classrooms, overworked teachers, staff shortages, the list goes on.

But every now and then an educator worth their weight in gold rises to the top of the pile and warms the hearts of a nation weary of woe.

And one such person is Jevonn Cloete, the 29-year-old acting deputy headmaster of the Rusthof LSEN School in Strand near Cape Town. LSEN stands for learners with special educational needs, and Jevonn has made it his life’s mission to help kids who struggle in the classroom to reach their full potential.

His dedication has paid off: Jevonn was crowned SA’s best teacher in special- needs education on a provincial and national level last year. And now he has another shining feather in his cap – he was recently named as South Africa’s nominee for the African Union Teacher Prize, only the second teacher in the country to manage this feat so far.

When you hear Jevonn tell his story one thing soon becomes clear: special-needs education is not just a job to him – it’s his calling. And if he hadn’t answered that call, the lives of the learners who pass through his classroom would’ve been the poorer for it.

Jevonn was in Grade 11 and had already been accepted to study medicine at Stellenbosch University when the course of his life changed in a matter of minutes.

“My maths teacher was chatting to another teacher outside in the hallway one day. They continued chatting even after we’d entered the classroom,” he recalls.

“I took the gap and started teaching the class by reviewing the previous day’s homework.”