School kept in the dark over proposal for school for Autistic children
"We feel that our rights and that of the community and learners have not been considered in this endeavour by the Department of Education."
THE future of Port Natal Pre-Primary School in Acton Road hangs in the balance, with the proposed establishment of a school for Autistic children on the premises.
Erica Bezuidenhout from Port Natal Pre-Primary School said the school has been at the property for 50 years, and recently found out they were to be moved out due to the establishment of the school by the Department of Education.
“I was called on 6 August to say trees on the property were being cut down at 6am. When I got to the school, I spoke to the site foreman who told me he had the contract to build a school. I looked at the plans, and saw it was a school for autism. I phoned around and everything has apparently gone through – there are plans and tenders. When I asked if our school would be affected, the foreman said we would have to leave in phase two,” she said.
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Dawid Verwey, chairperson of the governing body of Port Natal Pre-primary School, said: “We were not advised about the proposed plans. The governing body must be informed of such intention and be granted a reasonable opportunity to make representations in relation to such action. They have to put up a notice to enable the community to make representations and or objections to such actions. No legal routes have been followed. The neighbours belonging to the neighbourhood forum have also contacted the school to find out what information we have. Further investigation has revealed that nobody has any knowledge of this Autistic school. Our school is a functional pre-primary school which caters for learners in the immediate vicinity of Umbilo. We feel that our rights and that of the community and learners have not been considered in this endeavour by the Department,” he said.
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The school took the case to court last week and halted plans to remove the school’s fence.
In response to a query from Berea Mail regarding plans for the property, eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela, said: “The City has not received any applications for the said property. However, the property belongs to the Department of Education.”
Numerous attempts were made to get a response from the Department of Education, however no comment was received at time of going to print.
No need for school for Autistic children
Commenting on the plans for the school for autistic children, Liza Aziz, who is chairperson of Action in Autism and member of the Presidential Working Group for Persons with Disabilities, said she was unaware of the proposal.
“Action in Autism partnered with the Department of Education KZN to host the Autism Indaba of 2011 which resulted in the Autism Action Plan. This ensured that all 72 LSEN Schools in the province catered for autistic learners. It is therefore very disappointing that we had no knowledge that the department was building a school solely for learners with autism in the province,” she said.
Aziz said the building of the school also goes against government policy (White Paper 6: Special Needs Education, Building an Inclusive Education and Training System).
She said the policy document stipulates the right of all children to quality for inclusive education in their own community and it was a direct response to apartheid era special needs education, which separated learners in exclusive environments according to their disabilities.
“We are strongly against the move of building a school solely for Autistic people. We would like to see our people included in the mainstream of society and supported in a fully inclusive school environment,” she said.
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