Schools only part of helping pupils with autism

Building public schools for autistic children is a much-needed step in the right direction, but who is going to teach in those schools?

That was the question posed by Nelson Mandela University’s faculty of education’s deputy dean to the SA education deans' forum.

Specially trained teachers for these schools are just as important as the actual school, deputy dean Nokhanyo Mdzanga, who is the mother of an autistic teenager, said.

Mdzanga recently presented the need for specific training for aspiring teachers of children with autism, to the deans’ forum and representatives of the department of education in Gauteng.

“As a mother of an autistic child and as a teacher, I prepare teachers to teach but I can’t even prepare them to teach my own child.

“There are very few schools for autistic children in SA but that is only one side of the problem.

“The major problem is that programmes that prepare teachers do not equip them to teach children with autism,” Mdzanga said.

While education faculties in universities across the country do teach a module on special needs teaching, it does not capacitate student teachers to teach children with autism, Mdzanga said.

“Because autism requires specialised education content, there needs to be a programme that will help teachers understand the characteristics of a child with autism, understand the autism spectrum and the different strategies they could use to handle kids with autism,” she said.

Mdzanga delivered the presentation alongside Autism Eastern Cape representative Gillian McAinsh.

“We were very pleased with the positive response of the deans’ forum. They have said they are willing to do something about it but we [NMU] have to start doing something ourselves first,” Mdzanga said.

Mdzanga said she and other NMU education faculty stakeholders were establishing a short learning programme that incorporated an autism module into an early childhood development diploma.

“The deans have now taken our [suggestions] to their respective faculties.

“We will meet them again to follow up in November but since NMU is already doing something, we are going to share how we are tackling the issue with other universities,” she said.

The mother of a 14-year-old autistic boy, said she had eventually decided to home school her son, after years of struggling to find an affordable school with qualified teachers for him.

On her Facebook blog, Seems like it’s my destiny, Mdzanga shares her journey as the mother of a child with autism and helps other mothers whose children cannot go to school due to a lack of public schools equipped to deal with autistic pupils and the inability to afford private centres.

Mdzanga also runs newly launched home autism projects in Motherwell and in KwaNobuhle.

Port Elizabeth’s Quest School for Autistic Learners is the only state school in the Eastern Cape for autistic pupils.

In January, when premier Oscar Mabuyane visited special needs schools in Port Elizabeth, Quest School principal Lottie de Vries said they had 72 pupils on their waiting list and 69 new applicants.

Last year, Mabuyane said three new special-needs schools would be built — in Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City and Mthatha.

In January, however, he said before the schools were built, it was important to look at how the department of education could expand the facilities already in operation.