Vocational school closes after 50 years of training students with special needs

When it was announced in June that her son’s school, Mountbatten Vocational School (MVS), would be closing, Madam Doreen Lim, 54, took leave from work to find options for her 19-year-old son, who has autism.

- Shermaine Ang

She ended up rejected or wait-listed by organisations from St Andrew’s Autism School and THK Pan-Disability Centre @ Eunos to social enterprise food court Dignity Kitchen.

After several months, she managed to get her son, Mr Justin Phoon, into a six-week cafe skills training programme with social enterprise cafe Foreword Coffee.

Madam Lim, who works part-time asa teacher, hopes her son can land a job with the cafe. In the meantime, she is continuing the search for sheltered workshops.

With the closure of MVS, “it is no longer very sheltered with a fraternity to take care of him. It’s only me and my family”, she said.

Parents of children at MVS said they were left in the lurch after the announcement of its closure, causing them to scramble to find new arrangements for their children.

The lack of options for people with special needs past the age of 18 who have graduated from special education schools, dubbed the “post-18 cliff”, has long been a problem.

Many parents do not want their children to stay at home, where they would regress without meaningful activities or interactions.

Students typically went to MVS around the age of 18 and had to graduate when they turned 21. They repeated Year 1 if they were not assessed to be work-ready.

The final batch of 37 students marked their last day of school on Nov 20 with a graduation ceremony and carnival. Alumni from as far back as the class of 2012 joined in the bittersweet last hurrah at the 225 Mountbatten Road campus, which shares premises with the Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf).

MVS principal and administrator Emest Toh said there were 22 students in Year 1, who are not considered to be work-ready, and 15 in Year 2.

Of the Year 2s, 1 obtained Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Skills Certificates in food preparation, food and beverage services or housekeeping operations.