Some parents are teaching their children with disabilities some skills at home as they struggle to find placement.

15-year-old Asteria Iiyambo, a wheelchair user from Onampinda Village in the Oshana Region, is one of those who never stepped into a class as a result.

Some children with disabilities, especially those in remote areas, are still struggling to secure a chair in a classroom.

This is either because guardians have no means or such children have been turned away.

Eunice Nepiya has been struggling to find placement for her 15-year-old daughter Asteria Iiyambo since 2022.

"I took her to Eluwa Special School, and I was informed that they don't deal with people like her. I was informed to take her to a school at Outapi where they admitted her, but I did not do so because I didn't have money for transport."

Eluwa Special School only admits those with hearing, visually, and intellectual impairments, while a nearby school only takes in children from the age of five to 14.

Asteria's mother has, however, been teaching her mathematics and how to write at home.

Nepiya is unemployed and cannot do much to help her five children because of her ill health, while Asteria's father is said to be absent.

Oshana Deputy Education Director Hilma Nuunyango George says a child such as Iiyambo can be admitted at any public school because she is regarded as a normal child.

Recently, the Deputy Minister of Disability Affairs, Alexia Manobe-Ncube, called on all schools to have resource classes to accommodate children with disabilities. 

Asteria lives with her 73-year-old grandmother, Flora Amwoomo, for proper care and monitoring use of social grants, which she said had been abused in the past.

Okatana Councillor Edmund Ishuwa, who came across Iiyambo while identifying houses to be provided with ablution facilities, hopes that the situation of this family changes.