Despite the appalling state and underfunding of special schools in South Africa, provincial education departments have underspent on their allocated budgets – some by up to 55%.
These revelations came to light this week when the Department of Basic Education was presenting its progress report on the implementation of inclusive education to parliament’s portfolio committee on basic education.
Dr Moses Simelane, the branch head for curriculum at the national department, who was part of the delegation led by the department’s director-general, Hurbert Mweli, showed in his presentation that schools were underspending on their budget, which the department itself recognised as not nearly enough to cover the needs of the schools.
Mpumalanga is the biggest culprit, having spent only 45% of its budget of R1.1-billion for the past financial year.
The province, which has 18 special schools, is home to Masinakane Special School. The school caters for pupils who suffer from mild to severe physical and mental disabilities and it was through the intervention of the South African Human Rights Commission that the provincial education department was forced to provide hostel facilities to the pupils, who were sleeping in classrooms without ablution facilities.
Eastern Cape spent only 59% of its budget of R2-billion in past financial year despite the dire need in the special schools such as Ikwezi Lokusa.
“Pupils with disabilities are not valued, supported or included,” decried the DA’s Anna van Zyl, citing a second exposé by investigations programme Carte Blanche about the Ikwezi Lokusa Special School in uMthatha in the province, where the children slept on mattresses placed atop bricks.
The children, some of whom suffer from cerebral palsy, are left unattended for hours and not being bathed or their diapers changed.
North West and Limpopo spent only 61% of their allocated budget, while KwaZulu-Natal with 75 schools spent only 68% of its R2.4-billion budget. Only Western Cape overspent on its budget of R1.2-billion by R109 849, while Gauteng spent (77%), Free State (71%) and Northern Cape (62%).
According to Simelane, special schools are underfunded, with Eastern Cape, for example, needing R2.8-billion for the full implementation of the inclusive education programme.
However, the presentation showed that the province is not even able to spend the little it is allocated to provide children with decent facilities, care and education.
Inclusive education was muted in 1996 and a White Paper on Inclusive Education was gazetted in 2001 to guide South Africa’s efforts in ensuring that all children regardless of their disability have access to education to suit their needs.
Since the publishing of the white paper, Simelane said the number of public special schools for pupils with disabilities has increased from 295 in 2002 to 435 last year. He said the fact that the work on inclusive education took its cue from a white paper rather than a “fully-fledged policy” posed challenges for the department because the white paper articulates aspirations rather than imperatives.
Gauteng has the highest number of schools for children with disabilities with 124, followed by KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape.
Though in the presentation Simelane showed an education system that has vastly improved access to education for children with disabilities, the members of the portfolio committee said the situation on the ground painted a sad picture of how children in special schools were being treated.
The committee is planning to conduct surprise visits in schools of its choice.
“We will alert the school the day before the visit,” he said, adding the inspections will show the reality on the ground that is often not captured in presentations.
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