A special commission arrived at Boarding School No.2 in the city of Lenger in the Turkestan region and began mass expulsion of pupils with diagnoses including autism, cerebral palsy (CP) and speech disorders.
According to KTK, parents claim their children are being transferred to mainstream schools without warning, despite their developmental needs and diagnoses requiring specialised educational and medical support.
"This teacher in a mainstream school is not responsible for my child's health like the teacher in this school. Here we have teachers who even accompany the child to the toilet. In a mainstream school, if our child falls, as we already have unstable diagnoses, who will be held responsible for that?" — said Suzanna Yuldasheva, mother of one of the pupils.
Teachers at the boarding school are also concerned about what is happening. According to them, many children are not ready for the mainstream school system, either physically or psychologically.
Meanwhile, 150 staff members of the institution fear losing their jobs and believe the inspection is motivated by interest in the building, rather than concern for the children.
"There are rumours that they want to give the building over to a college. And now the commission is supposedly expelling our students 'by law'. We are told no one has been expelled, but parents have official reports in their hands with stamps!" — said teacher Elmira Yeshmatova.
Some parents, in desperation, burst into the room where the commission was meeting. According to witnesses, some mothers began throwing papers from the commission members' table.
Education officials claim they are acting within the law. According to them, the transfer to mainstream schools does not apply to everyone, only to children of a certain category.
"Every school has children with mild speech disorders. We send them to school too. At school they receive full psychological support. Because that is the law. It's not for you to decide. This has already been decided by law. If we give a conclusion, then the school will create the conditions for the child to be able to attend school. Do you understand?" — said Gulnur Islamkyzy, head of the State Institution 'Psychological, Medical and Pedagogical Consultation No.5' of the regional education department.
According to commission members, no one had been officially expelled at the time of the inspection. However, parents are showing documents with stamps and signatures containing wording about the need to leave the boarding school.
Teachers and parents intend to send a collective appeal to the Prosecutor General's Office demanding that the commission's actions be suspended and that the legality of its decisions be investigated.