MEC for Education, Fundile Gade, handed over seven buses to a special school at the Mandla Makupula Institute in East London, last week.
The aim of this initiative was to assist learners who have special needs. The schools who received these buses were Nomvume Autism School from Zwelitsha, Manzabila Autism School from OR Tambo Coastal, and Baseville Autism School in Buffalo City (these three schools will start to operate in January next year); Mt Fletcher Special School, King Ndlovuyezwe Special School in Port St Johns, Lonwabo Special School in Gqeberha and Lingomso Special School in Butterworth.
Acting director general of corporate services for the Department of Education, Sihle Mnguni, said some of their learners could not access education and workplaces due to challenges they had. He said they should ensure that these children belong to this country.
Mnguni added as the department they had a mandate to deliver education. “In our five-year strategic plan, as the department, we aim to lift the issue of protection and the safety of vulnerable children as one of the key policy areas,” said Mnguni.
He said they wanted to ensure that those children were not left out, but were taken care of.
He said they had to make sure that they provided infrastructure for those schools, the right education and resources, to ensure that they were accessible to all the community members, even those from deep rural areas.
Gade said the significant milestone that they had already taken as the provincial government, in ensuring that the exclusive education was one of the pillars that should characterise the schooling system in the province.
“We said we should look at the importance of bringing the autism schools (on board) as part of the agenda.
“We then identified three sites that should be taken care of (they would be used as autism schools). I am happy to say that by January, those schools will be operating and their operation begins today,” said Gade.
He added that, at the moment, they would make sure that these three schools received all the necessary equipment so that in January they could concentrate on accepting learners.
