Despite commendable work and persistent battles, not enough is being done for these learners
Special care centres provide a place of learning, care and support for just over 11 000 schoolchildren with severe to profound intellectual disability nationally. These learners are refused admission at public schools. Many of these special care centres are in private homes, RDP houses and shacks. Some are in purpose-built facilities. They are nongovernmental organisation and, in the Western Cape, many are funded by the department of social development and the department of health.
Motshekga further acknowledged that learners with severe to profound disabilities are “at risk of compound marginalisation” and concluded that “… in every settlement in South Africa, rural, periurban and urban, there are children with disabilities who remain excluded from education. Let us focus on this, and not just on how many they are … one child excluded is one child too many.”
Significantly, in 2017, when the department of basic education got a conditional grant of R477-million for the education of learners at special care centres nationally, the Western Cape education department relied solely on the conditional grant to implement the court order in the Western Cape.
The sector remains concerned that discussions and policies, without political will, sound leadership, time-bound implementation plans, quality performance indicators, funding models and stringent monitoring and consequence management, will remain good intentions.
The auditor general has required the department of basic education to report specifically on evidence of, inter alia, the formal assessment of learners at special care centres and their enrolment on the South African School Administration and Management System, as mandated by the Division of Revenue Bill.
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