The Eastern Cape Department of Education hosted a two-day awareness workshop as part of the Autism Awareness Month Celebration at Tembisa Special School in Mthatha, recently.
This two-day workshop shed light on how to identify young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and how to support them in Early Childhood Development (ECD), including preparing them for mainstream classes.
Some of the topics shared were the strategic framework and plan of the Eastern Cape, what role is played by this department to learners with autism across the inclusive Education system, and how to support learners with ASD with communication skills.
One of the parents, Yolande Nkosi, said that it is difficult to raise a child with this condition.
“It was not easy to raise my child, because the community do not understand their situation. I decided to work together with students from Fort Hare University to dramatise autism so that people can learn. This drama will help so that people cannot accuse their neighbours that they bewitched their children,” said Nkosi.
She said people should know that they are all affected by this, even if the person can think that his/her children do not have this condition, but people who are close to them have the same problem.
Nkosi said that some of the parents do not even allow their children to play with a child who is autistic.
“We are willing to do awareness in different areas so that people can have knowledge about this. We are glad that there are teachers who will be placed in the full-service schools to assist our children, but we are still not sure about this. We have different views about this; some parents agree that their children should be admitted to these schools.”
She said in fact all of them were supposed to think that way, but it is painful when people laugh at their children due to their condition.
Director for Inclusive Education from the Department of Education, Simon Ncapayi, said autism is a lifelong process because there is no medicine or cure; it is not medical condition.
“We are observing this day to ensure that people are aware of what is happening to children with ASD. Our society always has a belief that the child is bewitched, yet the child just needs a specific type of care,” said Ncapayi.
He said that they need only eight learners per class, and their class equipment must be right for them. “As from April last year, ECD had moved from Department of Social Development (DSD); now they are under the Department of Education. This gives us an expanded mandate that we quickly know if the child has a problem or not, at an early age.”
He added that there are 98 teachers graduating this month, for autistic learners.
They also have 198 graduating next year, then another 300 teachers graduating in 2026. Ncapayi said that by doing this were trying to expand knowledge in their schools.
