In Kazakhstan, children with autism have the opportunity to go to school
The Corporate Fund "Bolashak" announces the start of accepting applications for the project on inclusive education.
The Bolashak Foundation has started accepting applications for the social project on inclusive education "Every child deserves school" for the 2021-2022 academic year. Applications will be accepted from parents of children with autism and other developmental disabilities to study in grades 1-4 of the project's schools.
Children will be admitted to the inclusion support offices previously opened by the foundation in the cities of Shymkent, Karaganda, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Petropavlovsk, Pavlodar, Ekibastuz, Semey, Kokshetau, Zhezkazgan, Atyrau, Turkestan, and Kyzylorda.
Today, according to the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan, 6,771 children with autism live in Kazakhstan, and according to unofficial data, the number of children with autism exceeds 30 thousand. According to the international organization" Autism Speaks " for 2020, every 54 children in the world are diagnosed with autism.
April 2 – World Autism Awareness Day. This day was established by a resolution of the UN General Assembly in December 2007, where concern was expressed about the high number of children with autism.
The project" Every child deserves a school "of the Bolashak Foundation is aimed at developing and implementing an inclusive model of education for children with autism and other developmental disabilities in school and preschool organizations in Kazakhstan.
Since 2015, the Foundation has opened 43 inclusion support offices in 17 regions of Kazakhstan. More than 500 children with autism and other mental disorders were able to go to school every day. The project covers 34 schools across Kazakhstan and 2 kindergartens in the capital.
The Foundation has provided advice to more than 1,500 families with children with special needs. Thanks to the foundation, more than 2,000 specialists have been trained in inclusive education and applied behavior analysis, and more than 400 jobs have been created. The Foundation has made 70 amendments to the NPA of the Republic of Kazakhstan in terms of inclusive education.
"Today, on this special day, I want to share the success of our children-participants of the project "Every child deserves school". During the 6 years of the project implementation, 90% of non-verbal children of the project learned to speak, 19 boys and girls went to independent training, and 50 children with special needs became winners of school, city, regional competitions, and Olympiads. We are very proud of our children. This is a great merit of specialists and parents, "said Dinara Chaizhunusova, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Bolashak Foundation.
In 2020, the Bolashak Foundation provided comprehensive expert support to the Nursultan Nazarbayev Foundation in opening 16 inclusion support offices. And today, these offices continue to work under the supervision of the Bolashak Foundation.
The project "Every child deserves school" involves children with autism and other developmental disabilities from 7 to 11 years old. To get into the project, you need to go to the site www.bolashakcharity.kz fill out the application form. The questionnaire contains questions about the child's diagnosis, level of knowledge, skills, and verbal communication. To assess the child's ability to learn and socialize, it will be necessary to attach video materials about the child's behavior to the questionnaire. Applications will be accepted from April 2 to May 3, 2021, on the foundation's website. The procedure for filling out and reviewing applications will be published on the website on April 2 this year.
Participation in the project is free of charge. The project is charitable and is implemented at the expense of the annual Winter Charity Ball and local executive bodies. The partner of the project "Every child deserves a school" is the Nur Otan party within the framework of the direction "Promotion of inclusive education" of the project "Kedergisiz Keleshek".