LEARNERS with disabilities have a constitutional right to school transport and failure to provide it is discriminatory.
This was one of the arguments presented by human rights organisation SECTION 27 which was representing Siphilisa Isizwe, a disabled people’s organisation based in uMkhanyakude District, in a court case over scholar transport.
Siphilisa Isizwe joined Equal Education’s high court bid last week to force the provincial Departments of Basic Education and Transport to provide transport for learners in 12 schools in the Nqutu area and KZN as a whole.
The organisation, based in Manguzi, was admitted as a friend of the court and presented a case for the transport needs of learners with disabilities to be included in the province’s plans for scholar transport.
‘SECTION 27 presented evidence gathered in the uMkhanyakude District which illustrates that learners’ rights are being violated through the failure to provide scholar transport.
‘Based on this, there is a need for the department to develop a plan to provide learners with adequate and appropriate transport in this province.’The plan must take into account the variety of needs of learners with disabilities.
‘Some learners require quarterly long-distance transport, others require daily short-distance transport, and others require wheelchair ramps or door-to-door drop-offs or even special seating,’ SECTION 27 said in their heads of argument.
They said a judgment in favour of Equal Education would allow advocacy groups to put pressure on other provincial departments to provide scholar transport for all learners, including learners with disabilities.
The Pietermaritzburg High Court last week ordered the departments to report back to the court on 1 April 2018 and provide information on the status of the KZN scholar transport policy – the plans that the two departments will make to address the issue of scholar transport in the Province more broadly.
The court also ordered a report back on the ‘criteria used to determine the need for the provision of scholar transport and the alternative modes of transport that the two departments will consider’.
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The KZN Department of Education, however, it has never refused to provide school transport.
‘The demand for this service increases each year and the department is struggling to cope due to financial constraints.
‘In this current financial year alone, the department has allocated a total of R195-million to learner transport, which only benefits 47 000 learners out of the 90 000 that qualify for this intervention programme, due to budgetary constraints,’ KZN education MEC’s spokesperson Kwazi Mthethwa said.
The department further states that by South African standards, in order for any learner to qualify for school transport, that learner must be walking more than 6km to school.
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‘Having learners walking long distances to school could result in poor attendance and performance by learners in deep rural and far areas. As a system we are well on track to help change the situation,’ Mthethwa said.
