Help on the way for autistic kids in Eastern Cape

The Eastern Cape department of education will build three special needs schools in the next financial year.

The schools, which will accommodate mostly pupils with autism and have hostel facilities, will be in Nelson Mandela Bay, East London and Mthatha.

This was announced by premier Oscar Mabuyane in his state of the province address on Friday in Bhisho.

The establishment of the schools is expected to bring much-needed relief to parents who cannot afford to place their children in existing special needs schools.

The move will also see more pupils with special needs access education and care tailored to their needs.

The Herald reported in March 2017 that more than 3,000 children in the Eastern Cape were waiting for spaces at the few available schools.

“We want to establish schools for children with special needs such as autism,” Mabuyane said.

“It’s a very serious issue; it’s really getting hard in the communities out there.”

Mabuyane said the crisis had to be dealt with as a matter of urgency.

“We have to deal with this as parents have been organising themselves to try and call for help from government,” he said.

Mabuyane said they were aware some parents could not afford to send their children with special needs to private schools.

“Their children are left out there.

“We don’t want a single child to miss an opportunity for a bright future simply because they have special needs.

“Government must address the issue of special needs.

“We must nurture them while they are young,” Mabuyane said.

“We want to have special schools in Port Elizabeth, East London and Mthatha so that all children are in school no matter what their condition is.”

Nelson Mandela Bay has 13 special needs schools where waiting lists can reach hundreds at a time.

Education MEC Fundile Gade said: “We desperately need schools that will accommodate children with autism because we have observed that when children in the province get to grade 6 they have to go to KwaZulu-Natal.”

Gade said they were also mulling over making changes to a school that is being constructed in Amalinda in East London to accommodate children with special needs.

“Another option is to expand the College Street Primary School in East London so the curriculum and grades can accommodate a massive number of pupils,” Gade said.

He said they were mostly concerned with the Mthatha area, which does not have any schools catering for autistic children.

“That is where the nightmare is – the far east of the province does not have any, so we have to build a new one there.

“There are quite a few issues that we want to address and one of those is the behaviour of the people we are going to employ in the schools.

“This will be a priority,” Gade said.