In 2015, the South African government announced that it had reached universal enrolment in primary education.[1] However, the reality is a far cry from that. Half a million children with disabilities have been shut out of the education system in South Africa.[2] A 94 page Human Rights Watch report Complicit in Exclusion: South Africa’s Failure to Guarantee Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities revealed that children with disabilities in South Africa face discrimination in receiving school education.[3]
The right to education has been embodied in several international human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights[4] as a fundamental human right and widely regarded as the ‘passport to human development’.[5] The absoluteness and universality of this right has also been internationally accepted in the form of ‘Education for All’ millennium development goal.[6] The right to free and compulsory education has also been conferred upon children with disabilities.
Ironically, South Africa was one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities[7] in 2007, which entitles persons with disabilities to the right to education under Article 24 of CRPD. More importantly, the South African Constitution itself enshrines the right to education as a public entitlement and explicitly prohibits discrimination on grounds of disability and the state is required to take proactive steps to prevent such discrimination.[8]
Inadequacy of measures to fulfill the rights of children with disabilities:
Studies have revealed the systemic inadequacies that deprive disabled children from realizing their right to receive quality education and training, on par with their non-disabled peers. The most common justifications for refusing to admit children with disabilities into mainstream schools are the risks of inorganic integration and the distractions posed to the trainers and other learners by such integration. As a result, parents are often forced to send their children to schools which are equipped to handle the special needs of differently-abled children.[9]
Such exclusion is a blatant violation of South Africa’s own domestic laws. The Schools Act, 1996 enacted in the aftermath of the international condemnation the country faced for its apartheid regime, states that when determining the admission of a learner with disabilities in a public school, education officials must take into account the rights and wishes of learners with special education needs as well as the rights and wishes of the parents of such learner. The Schools Act, 1966 also mandates that people with disabilities and experts on special education needs of learners be represented in governing bodies of ordinary public schools.[10] However, school officials often refer students with disabilities to special schools, failing to address their special needs or examine their abilities before making such a referral.
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has repeatedly impleaded State parties to put an end to segregation of disabled children.[11] It has been observed that inclusion into mainstream schools largely benefits such children and helps them capitalize on the available opportunities and put their skills to productive use. But disabled children have persistently been denied access to the benefits of institutionalized inclusive education.
On the flip side, special schools also entail prohibitive costs that cannot be ignored. Such schools are often located far away from the residential areas which makes it all the more difficult and cumbersome for parents to ensure regular attendance of their children. A Human Rights Watch report found that no special schools are currently listed in any “no-fee” schools list produced by the government.[12] This reflects the gaping lack of institutionalized support offered to such children.
Special schools have a different set of challenges to overcome. The standard of curriculum delivery in these schools is poor. This is exacerbated by factors such as the dearth of teaching knowledge, training, skills; lack of motivation; and an absence of individualized planning.[13] Most teachers at ordinary schools are not trained to deal with the diverse needs of children suffering from such medical conditions or any impairment. Parents have reported instances where they’ve felt that the teachers don’t facilitate the holistic and inclusive educational experience of disabled children. It has also been argued that the ‘one size fits all’ policy is faulty because it limits the avenues available to such students after school.[14]Sexual violence and physical abuse is an additional threat to children with disabilities. Children with disabilities are reported to be at 3 to 5 times increased risk of abuse than their non-disabled peers.[15]
Underlying causes of inequities in access to services:
One of the major barriers to the effective implementation of inclusive education is the lack of appropriate training for teachers. There is an urgent need for an action plan to focus on the needs of all learners who experience learning difficulties by improving the capacity of teachers to plan their day to day teaching and adjust to differentiated curriculums. This ensures that children with disabilities have a wide array of meaningful subject choices that helps them develop skill-set to gain productive employment after schooling.
The crux of the problem, sadly, lies in the lack of social cohesion and community support in encouraging acceptance for these children in schools and other public spheres. It is unfortunate that despite the positive changes initiated by the transition from the approach based on the medical/welfare model of disability to one based on the social model (which sees disability as a human rights issue);[16] this is often not reflected in the attitudes and approaches of service providers and society at large.
While several national policies have been formulated to govern the State’s obligations to secure the free and compulsory education, the inconsistency and the lack of clarity in the strategic plan for implementation contributes to the lack of synergies between policies. This dis-coordinated approach creates further difficulties in budgetary allocations and fragmentation of the required services. On the one hand, the Government departments are not adequately informed about the service needs, whereas the non-governmental organizations working in the disability sector that can bridge this information gap are not able to access government funding.[17]
Recommendations:
Usually, children with disabilities are admitted into schools at a much later stage and therefore are faced with a disadvantage right from the beginning. This increases the possibility of drop-outs. A crucial component of the solution to this problem is admitting such children in Early Development Centres[18] in accordance with the mandates of the Children’s Act of 2007.[19] The expansion of EDC must target those children most in need of early childhood stimulation and development – including children with disabilities and those from poor communities.
In the long term, however, the government should aim to integrate and accommodate these children into mainstream schools. Accommodation can only be incentivized by encouraging greater investment in mainstream schools so as to create a disability-friendly environment. Inclusive education is in reality, a shared goal that can only be achieved if all the concerned stakeholders, including the civil society and the parents, work in tandem. Implementation, however, does not end with the formulation of policy. It requires a dual focus on the diverse needs of the children and monitoring their response to the accessibility-oriented policies. This helps ensure that effective mechanisms are put in place to combat abuse and discrimination.
[1]Elin Martinez, It doesn’t feel very universal from here, Right to Education Project, available at, https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/05/22/it-doesnt-feel-very-universal-here, last accessed on 3rd October, 2015.
[2]Tania Page, South Africa's disabled children shut out of school, available at, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/08/south-africa-disabled-children-schools-150818132336753.html, last accessed on 2nd October, 2015.
[3]Elin Martinez, Complicit in Exclusion, available at, https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/08/18/complicit-exclusion/south-africas-failure-guarantee-inclusive-education-children, last accessed on 2nd October, 2015.
[4]Article 26, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
[5]Education for All Goals, UNESCO, available at, http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/efa, last accessed on 29th September, 2015.
[6]Ibid.
[7] Hereinafter, ‘CRPD’.
[8]Section 9(3) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996.
[9]DSD, DWCPD and UNICEF. 2012. Children with Disabilities in South Africa: A Situation Analysis: 2001-2011. Pretoria: Department of Social Development/Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities/UNICEF.
[10]Admission Policy for Ordinary Public Schools, Department of Education, General Notice 2432 of 1998, available at, http://www.education.gov.za/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=12uDPCW6hsg=, s. 23(5), s. 24(1) – (4), last accessed on 3rd October, 2015.
[11]United Nations, Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, “Concluding observations on the initial report of Argentina as approved by the Committee at its eighth session (17-28 September 2012), CRPD/C/ARG/CO/1, para. 38.
[12]Department of Basic Education, “School Fees and Exemption – No Fee Schools”, available at, http://www.education.gov.za/Parents/NoFeeSchools/tabid/408/Default.aspx , last accessed 3rd October, 2015.
[13]DSD, DWCPD and UNICEF. 2012. Children with Disabilities in South Africa: A Situation Analysis: 2001-2011. Pretoria: Department of Social Development/Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities/UNICEF.
[14] National Stakeholder Workshop, 24 May 2011.
[15]David Miller and Jon Brown, Protecting disabled children from abuse, available at, http://www.nspcc.org.uk/services-and-resources/research-and-resources/right-to-be-safe/, last accessed on 3rd October, 2015.
[16] Office of the Deputy President (1997) Integrated National Disability Strategy and OSDP
(2008) National disability policy framework and guidelines for the implementation of the national disability policy framework.
[17]Supra, note 8.
[18] Hereinafter EDC.
[19]Supra, note 8.