Only 108 public schools in the country are able to offer fully inclusive education — the rest of South Africa’s schools do not have the infrastructure to accommodate pupils with physical disabilities.
Moses Simelane, the director of inclusive education at the basic education department, told the conference of the Southern African Association for Learning and Educational Differences (Saaled) on Monday that since 2001 only just over 100 schools have been upgraded to comply with universal access principles.
Inclusive education focuses on integrating and guaranteeing special educational needs of pupils with various forms of disabilities in mainstream schools. The education department’s white paper six of 2001 calls for the transformation of 500 schools into inclusive education centres over 20 years.
“I would admit that we’re far from reaching the target,” Simelane told the Mail & Guardian. “There’s still more that needs to be done, it’s work that we’re undertaking in phases.”
Simelane said the government realised there were still not enough schools to cater for needs for pupils with disabilities. “There are obviously not enough, but this is a resource-intensive undertaking. You’ll find that there are always limited resources, but upgrading infrastructure is something that we’re doing progressively,” he said.
He said upgrades were being determined by need because “it’s not like you’re going to find a physically disabled learner in each of the country’s 27 000 schools”.
“When schools admit learners with disabilities from their communities, the department steps in” to put in place requisite infrastructure, Simelane told the M&G.
But Saaled’s managing director Barbi Raymond said thousands of children with disabilities were being sent to special schools far from their homes and many others were in schools that could not cater for their needs, according to Saaled.
“There are still children with disabilities not even in school at all and that’s a huge challenge,” said Raymond on Monday.
She said the country was still very far from a satisfactory implementation of the inclusive education policies outlined in the 2001 white paper.
“It’s up to individuals to do the best they can to ensure inclusive education,” Raymond said.
Saaled hailed such people — teachers and principals who were taking the initiative to ensure pupils with disabilities were accommodated in their schools.
Aside from leading inclusive education advocacy in their communities, most of these individuals have also ensured infrastructure is upgraded.
Bongani Mthembu, principal of Deyi Full Service School located in Ugu District in KwaZulu-Natal, is one of the people recognised by Saaled. He told the M&G part of his role in his community is encouraging parents of children with disabilities to bring them to school.
“We go out to parents and make them understand that their children have a right to education too. They don’t have to keep them away from the community,” Mthembu said.
Also in the Ugu District, the Mbeleni Full Service School is gradually improving its infrastructure using annual funds from the education department, said school principal Mbongeni Shibe. “We accommodate for learners who would otherwise never have a chance to be in school,” Shibe said.
Buffy Allanson, head of Theodor Herzl Pre-Primary School in Port Elizabeth said: “We’ve built up the infrastructure and put up support systems over the past five years.”