Curro, the JSE listed independent school group is proud to announce the appointment of author and education specialist, Johan van Lill as project coordinator of its specialised approach to make inclusive education a reality within the group. Named, the Curro Learner Support Unit (CLSU), the approach aims to support teachers, parents and learners to understand neurodiversity and embrace research findings on barriers to learning and development.

Van Lill is a renowned expert on the complex stages of child development and feels passionate about equipping the mainstream school community on how to manage and work with learners with barriers to learning and development, such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyscalculia or executive function challenges.

As a prominent radio documentarist, Van Lill has mainly used this medium to enrich the lives of listeners across South Africa with insightful documentaries on education, language, the arts and spirituality.

As a qualified assessor of learning programmes, Van Lill has identified four steps in the three-year phased roll-out of the CLSU.  Awareness, professional development, implementation and research He amplifies the importance of evaluating the CLSU’s impact over time so that they can adapt as required.

He has a passion for Self-Directed Learning (SDL) and received an award from North-West University in 2021, making him the first recipient to be acknowledged for contributing to the enhancement of SDL in society as a whole.  Van Lill has written several educational series and has developed primary and secondary school curricula.  On the importance of the CLSU he says, “We believe that the development of the CLSU is an important milestone in Curro’s inclusive education journey and will help us to accommodate more learners in a mainstream schooling environment and help them to flourish and reach their potential.”

Johan van Lill