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An East London mother has accused the Eastern Cape department of education of failing to place her autistic daughter into a special school for the past five years.
Thembeka Kopolo (42), a single mother to nine-year-old twin girls, Oyolisa and Oyoliswa, says the district department of education has been sending her from pillar to post while her child loses out on valuable school time.
One twin, Oyolisa, was born with autism and cannot speak, read or write. She only communicates through odd noises but is able to hear instructions and carry them out.
“I have been knocking on all the doors of education in Mdantsane, and at the provincial head office in Zwelitsha,” said Kopolo. “I even wrote a letter to the national department in Pretoria pleading with them to give my child her right to education.
“I don’t know whether it is because my child is disabled, but since 2010 I have been [seeking help] at the offices [but] nothing happens. I am so frustrated that sometimes I even think of committing suicide with my children so we don’t bother anyone again.”
Malibongwe Mtima, Eastern Cape education department spokesperson, said they were attending to the case and trying to ensure that Kopolo’s daughter was placed in a special school by next year.
“We are also aware that the parent escalated the matter to the national department, which then referred it back to us. We are handling it, and the child will get a school at the end of the day,” said Mtima.
He admitted that in East London, the department was facing a high demand for special needs schools such as those dealing with autistic kids, and, as a result, four new special needs schools would open in the province from the beginning of next year – in East London, Fort Beaufort, Butterworth and Mthatha, respectively.
“Out of these four schools, we are trying to minimise the pressure that was being exerted,” he said.
Speaking from her home in Mdantsane, Kopolo said she felt that her child’s constitutional rights had been infringed; she was contemplating legal action against the department.
Since the other twin, Oyoliswa, is in Grade 3 at a nearby school, Oyolisa, who can’t attend school due to her condition, grabs her sister’s schoolbag and cries hysterically every morning.
“Both children are traumatised by this situation because the one is too young to understand why her sister cannot go to school with her, while the other does not know why she is left behind when her sister goes to school,” she said.
Kopolo said Oyolisa faced the possibility of losing two more schooling years, as Parklands Special School, the only public school for kids with special needs in East London, only has an opening in 2018.
