Tunis/Tunisia — A guidebook to ensure better integration of autistic children in educational institutions was launched on Sunday on the occasion of the World Autism Awareness Day.

Dedicated to the teacher, this guidebook is a collaboration between the Ministry of Family, Women, Childhood and the Elderly and the Tunisian Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (STPEA).

Attending an event organised to observe this day at the City of Culture downtown Tunis, Family Minister Amel Belhaj Moussa recalled that the department had drawn up in 2022 a State funding programme to cover the costs of integrating children with autism spectrum disorders in public and private early childhood institutions.

Monthly payments are made to the institutions participating in the programme for the necessary costs of speech therapy, functional therapy and other needs.

The number of autistic children attending kindergartens currently stands at 295, while further 300 have already benefited from this programme.

Committees are considering further applications for this programme, which is expected to reach 600 children by 2024.

Some 400 private kindergartens are participating in this programme. In Tunisia, only 9% of private kindergartens can be considered inclusive.

Taking the floor, Education Minister Mohamed Ali Boughdiri said that the number of autistic children enrolled in public schools hovers over 2,000, pointing out notably the need to consider ways to ensure optimal support for the child from the very first years.

The Ministry has started drawing up a survey on children with autism spectrum disorders and a regulatory text to organise the integration of children with special needs in general in schools, he added.