«Our children are isolated. Set them free!» – with this demand parents of children with autism come out by the walls of the Ministry of Education and Science on the 2, April, on the World Autism Awareness Day. And to illustrate the situation of their children they set a transparent prison cell in front of the Ministry, inside of which a child was sitting…
“We don`t accept such children…there is no inclusion for children with autism… your child is different … why should I need these children in school… our upbringers (teachers) do not know what to do with your child…” – almost every day I listen to the stories of parents who were shown the door. Our children have lots of problems, but the most painful is inability to receive education, inability to be among peers”, – tells Evgheniya Panichevskaya, head of the Association of children with autism parents, who initiated the Action “Our children are isolated not because of heartless directors and teachers, but because our government has not created any conditions for them to work with special children. We officially state that there is no inclusion in Ukraine – it exists only in the paper reports of the Ministry!”
At the first onset after announcing of the Action the representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science got in touch with the Association of children with autism parents and our Foundation with invitation to dialogue. The initiators of the Action have agreed to negotiate right after the Action.
“The Ukrainian education system, unfortunately, hasn`t gone far from USSR standards, when everyone who differs was locked up in boarding schools or at home. Teachers still do not know, haw to educate children with peculiarities of development. School directors still do not have possibility to organize such education even if desired. Children still can`t come to school with his tutor, who could help them understand school mode, teacher`s instructions, to set communication with peers”, – underlined Larisa Rybchenko, director of the Foundation of children with autism support “Child with future”. “Children with autism don`t exist for our system of education!”
Right after the Action a round table has been held with participation of representatives of the Ministry of Education in the frames of which nearest directions of work have been strictly determined:
– organization of an access of the child`s assistant (including a child with autism) to pre-school and school educational process together with a child;
– a concept development and, as a consequence, statutory enactments, for REAL work of inclusion of children with autism;
– education of pedagogues;
This is the second Action for parents of children with autism and our Foundation by the walls of the Ministry of Education and Science with a demand to provide children with possibility to study. The first Action was held in 2013, but though, the two years of attempts to cooperate with the Ministry still did not give real system results.
