The White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education–Building an inclusive education and training system, published in 2001, clearly set out to give children who learn differently and have different needs access to main-stream education, but since then parents, educators and allied medical professionals have been arguing about the best way to help these children.
The White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education–Building an inclusive education and training system, published in 2001, clearly set out to give children who learn differently and have different needs access to main-stream education, but since then parents, educators and allied medical professionals have been arguing about the best way to help these children.
The White Paper attempted to contextualise the state of special needs education in South Africa, with a view to making it more mainstream. Then Education minister Kader Asmal wrote in the forward that: “Race and exclusion were the decadent and immoral factors that determined the place of our innocent and vulnerable children. Through this White Paper, the Government is determined to create special needs education as a non-racial and integrated component of our education system.”
In Grahamstown, the Kuyasa Special Needs School is the only institution catering for primary school children, aged seven and up, with a variety of learning differences.
Specialised day care centres are equally as limited (see main story), and now it seems that the one pre-school that was attempting to include children with special needs in mainstream classes is on the brink of closing down its special class due to a lack of funding.
Flossy Dell, headmistress of The Wendy House Play Centre in Somerset Heights, has included several children with special needs in one of her classes, known as the bridging class. This class is essentially a Grade R designed to prepare children for Grade 1.
Dell started the bridging class when a family approached her because their children were turned away from all the local schools. This privately funded bridging class consisted of both special needs and non-special needs children, creating the inclusive environment that was the government's goal stated in the White Paper.
“Sadly, because of Grahamstown’s number of children, the schools don’t have space for children who have special needs,” Dell said.
“This is no criticism to the schools, it’s just the number of children.” Unfortunately, Dell will not continue the class in 2015 despite its current success due to funding problems, but she feels that the bridging course has given the children a space for stimulation and growth before they get into Grade 1.She adds that treating children equally despite their conditions helps them socially and psychologically.
“Children at this age are very accepting," she said. "We are doing very well with two of our little boys developing well in the 15 months they have been with us.”
The lack of facilities in Grahamstown schools has resulted in more than one family having to relocate. Dell says some families can afford this relocation while others are not so lucky.
Amanda Edwards, a local speech therapist who works with special needs children, said that while placing them in mainstream schools is beneficial, she questions how practical it is in public schools where average class size is more than 30 learners.
Ghida Bernard, an occupational therapist, would like to see more therapists working in the schools with these children.
"There is a massive need for school-based therapy,” Bernard said.
