OFFICIALS from the Department of Education hosted a two-day MEC outreach programme to raise awareness of opportunities available for them in the Alfred Nzo west education district, recently.
According to the spokesperson for the department, Malibongwe Mtima, the outreach programme, themed ‘Bonke Ngabethu’, forms part of the department’s mandate to advocate on the rights of learners who experience barriers in learning.
He said therapeutic specialised assessment and oral support were available for learners on site.
“This is an annual outreach programme of the MEC, Fundile Gade, where he is taking inclusive education to the people.
“This year we will be covering six education districts, Alfred Nzo west and Alfred Nzo east, OR Tambo inland district and OR Tambo coastal district, Amathole east and Amathole west,” said Mtima.
He added that they were concentrating on oral health, hard hearing, therapeutic services and mother tongue-based bilingual education (MTBBE).
According to Mtima, the main intention of this programme was to ensure that learners were assessed for the purposes of placement and medical care.
“Many parents don’t even know where to get psychologists, therapists or other specialists. We also hosted the same programme in the OR Tambo coastal district which was the fourth district.
“We managed to cover 1 000 learners for oral health.
“We also dealt with Efata High School and Mount Ayliff Technical School.”
