Plea for inclusive education continues
More than 597 000 South African children with disabilities did not attend school in 2015.
RECENT statistics have revealed that more than 597 000 South African children with disabilities did not attend school in 2015, almost double the 280 000 estimated in 2001.
This is just one of the shocking findings in a report prepared by a range of high level advocacy groups in the South African inclusive education and disability rights arena.
Known as the Right to Education for Children with Disabilities Alliance, they have provided an alternative report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This was done in response to South Africa’s Baseline Country Report of March 2013.
Some of the key issues discussed in the December 2016 report were: Children remaining on waiting lists for special schools for up to five years; the lack of provision for learners with disabilities before and beyond the ages of 7 and 18 years and the state’s failure to assist learners by providing devices or additional classroom support.
The Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) curriculum was also discussed. This curriculum was introduced in 2012, yet by 2015, 17 out of 22 special schools for visually-impaired learners reported not having received a single textbook, workbook or teacher’s guide for the CAPS curriculum in braille. Only 150 of the more than 600 CAPS textbooks had been adapted into braille.
Robyn Beere, Director of Inclusive Education South Africa, said, “We are extremely concerned by the ways in which the South African schooling system compromises the rights and dignity of children with disabilities. For example, private space is seldom allocated to personal care needs and buildings are inaccessible to children using wheelchairs, who then have to crawl or be carried. The discriminatory attitudes and practices that prevail in many schools – if children are fortunate enough to have access in the first place – have not been addressed.”
In its five-year strategic plan (2015/16-2019/20), the Department of Basic Education (DBE) committed to strengthen inclusive education. However, Silomo Khumalo, researcher at Section 27, says this has not been done.
“Provisions related to inclusive education are scattered across a few pieces of legislation. The existing framework does not place clear obligations on the state to ensure that children with disabilities can access quality education within the general education system,” he added.
The report can be viewed online at www.included.org.za.
