In the past, learners with special education needs were confined to special schools, but now they are being mainstreamed, writes Console Tleane
The integration, normalisation and mainstreaming of learners with special education needs (LSEN) is one area that has been identified as being in need of a totally new approach.
There are currently 47 517 learners with special needs enrolled in 324 institutions countrywide. The prevalence of severe disability in the age group four to 14 years is about 2,6%. Out of this it is estimated that about 27 000 are outside the special schooling system. The initial move to include learners with special needs was the Education White Paper of 1995.
Special needs is now a broad category ranging from mild intellectual disability through to severe behavioural problems. It includes learners with slight hearing and sight problems, wheelchair-bound learners, and learners with epileptic conditions, among others, who will have to be admitted into mainstream schools.
Thus far there has been little opposition to the mainstreaming of LSEN. But what are the practical challenges that will have to be addressed?According to Jill Cutler, specialist on special education in the North West Province Department of Education, the main challenge is to change the mind-set of most people.
“Parents are prejudiced, ignorant and superstitious. The mainstreaming of LSEN will require a paradigm shift by all people. Parents say teachers will lose valuable time because they will have to give special attention to these learners,” says Cutler. “Teachers are also nervous about these learners. They do not know how they will handle them.”
A teacher at Mamelodi High School said a learner with a mild mental problem roughed her up a bit, she said: “You see, these are the people who the department want us to teach! Tell me how am I going to be able to cope with these kinds of people? I was trained to teach ‘normal’ learners, not this type”.
This teacher is not alone in her prejudice. But her position is understandable – she lacks the skills to deal with LSEN. The smooth mainstreaming of LSEN will require extensive training for teachers. Schools will need to construct enabling physical amenities to meet the needs of learners who, for example, use wheelchairs. Schools will also need to provide special sporting equipment, transport, and access to well-trained medical personnel.
Like the teacher from the Mamelodi school, a number of teachers have said that while they do not have any attitudinal problems with LSEN, their main concern remains the fact that they were not trained to teach these learners. But perhaps the main challenge will be how to prepare other learners to view and treat LSEN as learners just like themselves. A learner at an intermediate school said: “The learners in our school are nasty. There is a lot of teasing and taunting in this school. If they can tease and taunt ‘normal’ learners who are like themselves, how much more so for LSEN?”
But the picture is not completely bleak. Learners from a primary school with a well-formulated human rights curriculum claimed that they foresaw no problems with the mainstreaming of LSEN. Pupils are taught that every human being should be treated with respect. A grade 7 learner reworded the popular HIV/Aids educational slogan to formulate a possible attitude towards LSEN: “My friend with a disability is still my friend.”
The mainstreaming of LSEN should be a welcome development. It is important that the state allocate enough resources for the training of teachers to enable them to deal with LSEN and assist other learners to treat them as equals. Equally important will be the allocation of adequate resources for physical amenities in schools. Then the education system will be on the right track towards engendering a real anti-discrimination practice.
– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, June 2001.