Kathmandu to host First National Summit on Autism

Kathmandu: A national summit dedicated to Autism and Special needs, a first of its kind, is being held in Kathmandu next month.

The First National Autism Summit of Nepal is being convened by Inclusive Education Nepal (IEN) and Samanata School, a specialist autism education school, in Kathmandu on coming September 17, organizers said.

The Summit is being organised with an aim to bring together government officials, teachers, clinicians, autistic adults and parents for a first ever formal conversation on the matter. Around 200 participants from all seven provinces are scheduled to take part in the event.

According to the 2021 census, only 2.2 percent of Nepal’s population is officially recorded as having a disability, well below the global estimate of 5 to 10 percent. Organizers say that gap reflects how many autistic children in the country are never formally identified at all.

Across roughly 35,000 schools serving close to seven million students, most teachers have heard of inclusive education policy but have had little training in how to apply it to autism specifically.

“Nepal has strong laws on paper,” said Ram Tiwari, Director of Inclusive Education Nepal. “What we don’t have is a system that actually finds these children, or a place where the people trying to help them can sit down together. That’s what we’re hosting this Summit.”

The one-day summit will also release what organizers describe as Nepal’s first primary data on autism identification and support, gathered directly from schools and families across the country. Four sessions covering classroom practice, assistive technology, policy and financing, and a Nepali-language track for parents and caregivers are being held.

The summit will close with a set of national recommendations following endorsement by institutions taking part in the national event.

It will also form a standing working group to carry the recommendations forward, and organisers plan to bring the results to the International Conference on Transformative Inclusive Education scheduled to be held in Kathmandu later this December, adds IEN Director Tiwari.

RSS