Cape Town - While there has been an increase in special schools for learners with disabilities over the past two decades, there remain hindrances to access inclusive education, particularly for learners aged 16-18, in the Western Cape.
This was one of the findings revealed during a briefing by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to the portfolio committee on Tuesday.
The briefing related to promoting inclusive education in respect of progress in support of Learners with Special Education Needs (LSEN), digital resources and learning resources for special schools.
During opening remarks, Minister of Basic Education, Siviwe Gwarube, said the department was trying to not only expand access, but the quality of inclusive education as much as possible.
The department had 295 special schools in 2002, and 499 special schools listed in 2023.
In 2002, the department had 64 000 learners enrolled in special schools, and currently, there were 140 000 learners enrolled.
Gwarube said: “Because the 13.5 million learners that we often talk about, are learners that are different, that come from different backgrounds, that have different needs and so our system has to be responsive to that and we have to make sure that even for learners who don’t necessarily need to attend special schools, how do we incorporate and attend to their needs even in mainstream schools for things like infrastructure, like buildings ramps for wheelchairs, like making sure that we do provide the kind of assistance that they need.”
The department’s director for Inclusive Education, Jabulani Ngcobo, said while significant progress had been made, the department was also mindful of the challenges that existed.
“We have been using Education White Paper 6 as our mechanism for driving inclusive education and we acknowledge that some of the policy intentions in the White Paper were somewhat ambiguous and that the strategic intent may have therefore been unclear and that in terms of the international conventions and treaties, and we haven’t realistically translated this to policy in our legal frameworks,” Ngcobo said.
In the Western Cape, there were 20 743 learners with disabilities at 75 of the province’s special schools, and 1 940 learners with disabilities across 1 470 public ordinary schools as of 2023.
Ngcobo there were 67 104 learners with disabilities at public ordinary schools nationwide.
This showed compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in terms of access to education for learners within their communities.
However, the department had not reached 100% universal access for both learners with disabilities and learners without disabilities.
Data from 2015 to 2021, showed that statistics related to access were less for learners with disabilities.
In the Western Cape, universal access for learners with disabilities in the age group 5-6-years-old was placed at 66.40%; for 7-15 year old at 93.10%; and 16-18-years-old at 55.90%.
The DBE director-general established a National Task Team, which will focus on the placement of outof-school children with disabilities at schools.
Cape Argus