'Little hope for children with disabilities'
THE South African education system is failing children with disabilities, Right to Education for Children with Disabilities (R2E CWD) said yesterday.
R2E CWD said while hundreds of thousands of children celebrate matric success, many with disabilities looked on with little hope that they will ever experience this sense of achievement.
"A collaborative effort by several departments is required to provide the support necessary for the education of children with disabilities. These departments include Basic Education, Health, Social Development, Public Works, Transport and Higher Education.
"Children with disabilities who manage to beat the odds and access basic education often drop out or are excluded from education further along the line," R2E CWD said in a statement.
The organisation said despite a Bill of Rights that guarantees basic education for all children, relatively few schools were equipped to meet the learning needs of children with disabilities and only a fraction of these children matriculated.
It is estimated that more than 165000 children with disabilities were out of school.
Parliamentary programme coordinator at the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape, Samantha Waterhouse, said: "Inclusive education can and does work if the policy is implemented properly. We are concerned about the weak political will to make this policy work and the seeming lack of motivation in relevant government departments to implement the policy."
Manager of Inclusive Education Western Cape, Robyn Bath, raised concerns about the limited career opportunities for children with disabilities who were channelled out of ordinary high schools into Further Education and Training colleges or schools of skills.
"These education settings are appropriate for some children with disabilities, but large numbers of children who are capable of an academic matric are excluded from this option and simply channelled to FET," Bath said.
National coordinator of the Disabled Children's Action Group, Sandra Ambrose, said: "Children with disabilities must no longer be hidden in their homes, side-lined in society and treated as secondary citizens.
"It is high time that all concerned parties - parents, communities, public servants and politicians - join hands to ensure that children with disabilities have the same opportunities as other children."
Ikemolofish
It is sad & true about us People With disAbilities (PWD's), the government never cared for us. Take for example learnerships, the requirement age for a learnership between 18 & 35 years, yet they forget that most PWD's start school at the late age because of issues like, no equipment for these people. A normal child will start at the age of 5/6 years while a child with disAbility will probably start at 10 or 12 years. This is because of resources. Parents are being scared to send their kids to normal schools because we're still treated as secondary citizens, by the government and society at large.Report Abuse