A Hungarian school for the blind and partially sighted is being established in Székelyudvarhely. The Transylvanian Reformed Church District (EREK) purchased the property for the future institution with the support of the Hungarian state.
On Thursday, Bishop Béla Kató handed over the building intended for the establishment of the elementary school and dormitory, as well as the founding document of the institution named Bartimeus center, to the representatives of the Transylvanian Hungarian Association for the Visually Impaired. The recently renovated, four-story building used to function as guest accommodation for a clothing factory in Székelyudvarhely. Its purchase was supported by the Hungarian government with HUF 500 million.
As Zsolt Máté, vice president of the Transylvanian Hungarian Association for the Visually Impaired, told MTI: there are about 200 visually impaired children living in Székelyföld alone, who until now have not had the opportunity to study in a school that takes into account their special needs. He added: they are preparing to make the building suitable for educational purposes by the start of the 2022-2023 school year. In the special school, classrooms will be created for elementary school children, grades 5-8. First-grade students continue to study in special classes in existing schools, and upper-grade students can already study together with sighted children. He added: the special school is needed to teach visually impaired children to learn.
Reformed bishop Béla Kató/previous recording/MTI
Bishop Béla Kató said at the press conference: the man of the biblical Old Testament still believed that if a blind child was born, it was the result of someone's sin. After Jesus, the question arises as to why the majority of people received the ability to see. According to him, this could not be answered if there were no visually impaired people in the world. He called it a task to provide the blind with the same quality of life as the sighted.
In addition to the document, the bishop handed over ten Braille Bibles to the association preparing to found a school.
At the press conference, both Árpád Gálfi, the mayor of Székelyudvarhely, and Bíró Barna Botond, the deputy president of the municipality of Hargita County, assured of their support for the association preparing to establish a school.
At the press conference, Zsolt Tőkés, the director of the Small Gergely Reformatory College in Székelyudvarhely, Baczkamadarasi, expressed his hope that the special school section could be integrated into the institution he leads. The physics teacher, who also holds the position of head guardian of the Reformed church district, said that a blind student graduated from his school last year, and he achieved the best result in his class in a light science test. He believed that there is a good chance of filling the future position of school chaplain at the Bartimaeus center, since this young man has been studying theology ever since. (MTI)
Source: szekelyfold.ma
Featured image: Getty images/illustration/ Braille - Bible
