Responding to the needs of more Challenged Students: Teacher empowerment during COVID-19 Lockdown and Beyond

Dealing with students with severe challenges is a more daunting task for teachers. There are significantly higher rates of students with disabilities in developing countries such as South Africa. The South African government is trying immensely to improve how teachers are empowered to assist them in their work of dealing with these students. These strategies are adapted to fit into the needs of students depending on the type of challenges they have. The risks are thought to be particularly high during COVID-19 lockdown where normal face-to-face classes are replaced with online teaching. When the President announced the national lockdown, students and teachers had to adapt to the new strategy of conducting teaching and learning using online strategies. With students with challenges such as Autism Spectrum and Speech-Language barriers is a big challenge as they need specialized assistive devices to access learning content. Most students come from socially disadvantaged homes where they cannot access Information and Communication Technology (ICT) facilities. This paper aims to investigate how teachers can be empowered with strategies that can be used during COVID-19 and beyond for students with Autism and those with speech and language barriers. The literature explored here does not only illustrate what numerous authors say about teacher empowerment strategies, but it also illustrates how some of these strategies can be useful for both teachers and students. The discussion is to assist in delivering the best strategies that are accessible by both teachers and students in teaching and learning during the COVID-19 lockdown period and beyond.