The MEC for Education, Fundile Gade, has indicated that about 98 students have received training to deal with learners who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). He said that these teachers would be graduating next month, and will be placed in different full-service schools.
Gade said that this in an interview during Provincial Rainbow Walk for Autism that was held in Mthatha, last week.
“Our observation is that we have not yet performed according to the expectations as the white paper says, which talks to people with disabilities especially when talking about institutions of learning, generally in the country. This led us to introduce, in 2019, the Bonke Ngabethu programme so that we can make an alignment properly, with speed, in ensuring that at least we respond to the inclusive nature of the character of the society that we seem to be,” said Gade.
He added that they had trained 98 students on autism spectrum, which are graduating next month. He said in terms of the plans, these students must be placed in June in particular, in some of the institutions they had just recently built, like Thembisa Special School in Mthatha.
“We have a will that has accommodated 48 learners with autism as part of the disciplines that are in that particular special school. Our target is to ensure that we also create another one in Komani.”
Gade added that they had made an observation that around Chris Hani West, Joe Gqabi area, there is a scarcity of these kinds of schools, in particular in autism. According to him, three years back they had launched three schools, Manzayabila in Port St Johns, another in East London and a third in Gqeberha.
“But my observation was that we do have many special schools in places like Gqeberha; we still have a challenge of these schools in the former Transkei areas; hence we opened Manzayabila in Port St Johns, and the one that is here in Mthatha, Thembisa Special School, which accommodates more than 200 learners.
According to him, they intended to build the second phase of it, so that they can at least take 500 learners in a space of three years, to come with hostels and facilities that are there. Gade said that Mthatha is one of the major hub cities of the former Transkei area, so they need to revitalise it and also develop it further in terms of the education facilities that are needed.
Director for Autism Matters in South Africa, Nobatembu Qosho, said that they were doing an awareness push because April is autism month. She said that they had chosen to host it in Mthatha so that people from rural areas could understand what autism is.
Qosho said that they also wanted them to understand how they should treat children with autism.
“We are working with other organisations that deal with autism. We are happy when the department is saying they have trained students to deal with learners who are autistic; we hope that there are schools where these teachers will be placed.”
She added that the plan of putting these children in public schools means that they are going back to Inclusive Education that was introduced by the department in 2001. She said that if that is happening, taking these children to mainstream schools and their classrooms which have teachers who know about autism, they will be fine. According to her, some of the challenges that are also facing these children are that the community, including parents, do not understand them. She said that even their families do not understand them, that is why they came to Mthatha; they want to assist where they can.
“We want them to understand that they are not like other children; they must not expect too much from them. We are here to teach them what they should expect in the child with autism, and what they should not expect. Qosho confirmed that they are always hosting campaigns about this.
