EDUCATION WHITE PAPER 6
Special Needs Education
Building an inclusive education and training system.
31 May 2001
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction
by the Minister of Education 5
Executive
Summary 7
CHAPTER 1:WHAT
IS AN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
SYSTEM? 11
1. Context 11
1.1 Introduction 12
1.2 The White
Paper Process 13
1.3
The Current
Profile and Distribution of Special Schools and
Learner Enrolment 14
1.4 What is
Inclusive Education and Training? 17
1.5 Building An
Inclusive Education and Training System:
The First Steps 18
1.6 HIV/AIDS
and Other Infectious Diseases 23
CHAPTER 2:THE FRAMEWORK FOR ESTABLISHING AN
INCLUSIVE
EDUCATION AND TRAINING SYSTEM 24
2.1 Introduction 24
2.2
The Framework
for Establishing an Inclusive Education and
Training System 26
2.2.1 Education
and Training Policies, Legislation,
Advisory Bodies and Governance and
Organisational
arrangements 26
2.2.2 Strengthening
Education Support Services 28
2.2.3 Expanding
Provision and Access 29
2.2.4 Further
Education and Training 30
2.2.5 Higher
Education 31
2.2.6 Curriculum,
Assessment and Quality Assurance 31
2.2.7 Information,
Advocacy and Mobilisation 33
2.2.8 HIV/AIDS
and other Infectious Diseases 34
2.3 Funding
Strategy 34
3.1 Introduction 35
3.2 Critical
Success Factors 35
3.3 Current
Expenditure Patterns 37
3.4 Expanding
Access and Provision 37
3.5 Costs attached
to Expanding Access and Provision 37
3.6 Funding
Strategy 38
3.7 Conditional
Grants 38
3.8 Budgets of
Provincial Departments 39
3.9 Donor
Funding 40
3.10 Further
Education and Training and Higher Education 40
3.11 The Time
Frame 40
3.12 Summary 41
CHAPTER
4:ESTABLISHING THE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION AND
TRAINING SYSTEM 43
4.1 Our Long
Term Goal 43
4.3.1 Building
Capacity in all Education Departments 44
4.3.2 Strengthening
the Capacities of all Advisory Bodies 44
4.3.3 Establishing
District Support Teams 44
4.3.4
Auditing and
improving the quality of and converting Special
Schools to Resources Centres 45
4.3.5
Identifying,
designating and establishing Full Service Schools,
Public Adult Learning Centres, and Further and Higher
Education Institutions. 45
4.3.6
Establishing
Institutional Level Support Teams 46
4.3.7
Assisting in
establishing mechanisms at community level for
the Early Identification of Severe Learning
Difficulties 46
4.3.8
Developing
the professional capacity of all educators in
Curriculum Development and Assessment 47
4.3.9 Promoting Quality Assurance and Quality Improvement 47
4.3.10 Mobilising Public Support 47
4.3.11 HIV/AIDS and other Infectious Diseases 48
4.4.12 Developing an Appropriate Funding Strategy 48
Annexure A 49
INTRODUCTION BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION
When I
announced the Implementation Plan for Tirisano, I noted with regret that our
national and system-wide response to the challenge of Special Education would
be delayed but brought to the public as soon as we had analysed the comment on
the Consultative Paper (Department of Education. Consultative Paper No. 1 on
Special Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System. August 30, 1999). I am therefore glad to announce our response in this White Paper.
I am
especially pleased that I have had the opportunity to take personal ownership
of a process so critical to our education and training system which begun some
five years ago in October 1996 with the appointment of the National
Commission on Special Needs in Education and Training and the National
Committee on Education Support Services.
I say this because I am deeply aware of the concerns shared by many
parents, teachers, lecturers, specialists and learners about the future of
special schools and specialised settings in an inclusive education and training
system. They share these concerns
because they worry about what kind of educational experience would be available
to learners with moderate to severe disabilities in mainstream education. I understand these concerns, especially now,
after I have observed what a difference special schools can make when they
provide a quality and relevant learning experience.
In this White Paper, we make it clear
that special schools will be strengthened rather than abolished. Following the completion of our audit of
special schools, we will develop investment plans to improve the quality of
education across all of them. Learners
with severe disabilities will be accommodated in these vastly improved special
schools, as part of an inclusive system.
In this regard, the process of identifying, assessing and enrolling
learners in special schools will be overhauled and replaced by structures that
acknowledge the central role played by teachers, lecturers and parents. Given the considerable expertise and
resources that are invested in special schools, we must also make these available
to neighbourhood schools, especially full-service schools and colleges. As we outline in this White Paper, this can
be achieved by making special schools, in an incremental manner, part of
district support services where they can become a resource for all our schools.
I am also deeply aware of the anxieties
that many teachers, lecturers, parents and learners hold about our inclusion
proposals for learners with special education needs. They fear the many challenges that may come with inclusion - of
teaching, communication, costs, stereotyping and the safety of learners - that
can be righted only by further professional and physical resources development,
information dissemination and advocacy.
We address these concerns also in this White Paper.
Beginning with thirty and expanding up to
500 schools and colleges, we will incrementally develop full-service school and
college models of inclusion that can in the long term be considered for
system-wide application. In this manner
the Government is demonstrating its determination that through the development
of models of inclusion we can take the first steps of implementing our policy
goal of inclusion.
This White Paper, together with Education
White Paper 5 on Early Childhood Development completes an extraordinary period
of seven years of post-apartheid policy development and policy making outlined
in Education White Paper 1 on Education and Training that began in the final
quarter of 1994. It is a policy paper
that took us more time to complete than any of the five macro-systems policies
that it follows upon. This means that
is has benefited the most from our early experience and knowledge of the
complex interface of policy and practice.
It is therefore another post-apartheid
landmark policy paper that cuts our ties with the past and recognises the vital
contribution that our people with disabilities are making and must continue to
do, but as part of, not isolated from the flowering of our nation.
I hold out great hope that through the
measures that we put forward in this White Paper we will also be able to
convince the thousands of mothers and fathers of some 280,000 disabled children
- who are younger than 18 years and are not in schools or colleges - that the
place of these children is not one of isolation in dark backrooms and
sheds. It is with their peers, in
schools, on the playgrounds, on the streets and in places of worship where they
can become part of the local community and cultural life, and part of the
reconstruction and development of our country.
For, it is only when these ones among us are a natural and ordinary part
of us that we can truly lay claim to the status of cherishing all our children
equally.
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.
I wish to take this opportunity to invite
all our social partners, members of the public and interested organisations to
join us in this important and vital task that faces us: of building an
inclusive education system. Let us work
together to nurture our people with disabilities so that they also experience
the full excitement and the joy of learning, and to provide them, and our
nation, with a solid foundation for lifelong learning and development. I acknowledge that building an inclusive
education and training system will not be easy. What will be required of us all is persistence, commitment,
co-ordination, support, monitoring, evaluation, follow-up and leadership.
Professor Kader Asmal, MP
Minister of Education
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
q
Acknowledging
that all children and youth can learn and that all children and youth need support.
q
Enabling
education structures, systems and learning methodologies to meet the needs of
all learners.
q
Acknowledging
and respecting differences in learners, whether due to age, gender, ethnicity,
language, class, disability, HIV or other infectious diseases.
q
Broader than
formal schooling and acknowledging that learning also occurs in the home and
community, and within formal and informal settings and structures.
q
Changing
attitudes, behaviour, teaching methods, curricula and environment to meet the
needs of all learners; and
q
Maximising
the participation of all learners in the culture and the curriculum of
educational institutions and uncovering and minimising barriers to learning.
q
Negative
attitudes to and stereotyping of difference.
q
An inflexible
curriculum.
q
Inappropriate
languages or language of learning and teaching.
q
Inappropriate
communication.
q
Inaccessible
and unsafe built environments.
q
Inappropriate
and inadequate support services.
q
Inadequate
policies and legislation.
q
The
non-recognition and non-involvement of parents, and
q
Inadequately
and inappropriately trained education managers and educators.
q
The
qualitative improvement of special schools for the learners that they serve and
their phased conversion to resource centres that provide professional support
to neighbourhood schools and are integrated into district-based support teams.
q
The
overhauling of the process of identifying, assessing and enrolling learners in
special schools, and its replacement by one that acknowledges the central role
played by teachers, lecturers and parents.
q
The
mobilisation of out of school disabled children and youth of school going age.
q
Within
mainstream schooling, the designation and phased conversion of approximately
500 out of 20,000 primary schools to full service schools, beginning with the
thirty school districts that are part of the national district development
programme. Similarly, within adult
basic, further and higher education, the designation and establishment of full
service educational institutions. These
full service education institutions will enable us to develop models for later
system-wide application.
q
Within
mainstream education, the general orientation and introduction of management,
governing bodies and professional staff to the inclusion model, and the
targeting of early identification of the range of diverse learning needs and
intervention in the Foundation Phase.
q
The
establishment of district-based support teams to provide a co-ordinated
professional support service that draws on expertise in further and higher
education and local communities, targeting special schools and specialised
settings, designated full service and other primary schools and educational
institutions, beginning with the thirty districts that are part of the national
district development programme; and
q
The launching
of a national advocacy and information programme in support of the inclusion
model focusing on the roles, responsibilities and rights of all learning
institutions, parents and local communities and highlighting the focal
programmes and reporting on their progress.
15. The
development of an inclusive education and training system will take into
account the incidence and the impact of the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and
other infectious diseases. For planning
purposes the Ministry of Education will ascertain, in particular, the
consequences for the curriculum, the expected enrolment and drop-out rates and
the funding implications for both the short- and long-term. The Ministry will gather this information
from an internally commissioned study as well as from other research being
conducted in this area.
WHAT IS AN INCLUSIVE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
SYSTEM?
1. Context
Special
needs education is a sector where the ravages of apartheid remain most
evident. The segregation of learners on
the basis of race was here extended to incorporate segregation on the basis of
disability. Apartheid special schools
were thus organised according to two segregating criteria, race and
disability. In accordance with
apartheid policy, schools that accommodated white disabled learners were
extremely well- resourced whilst the few schools for black
disabled learners were systematically under- resourced.
Learners
with disability experienced great difficulty in gaining access to
education. Very few special schools
existed and they were limited to admitting learners according to rigidly
applied categories. Learners who experienced
learning difficulties because of severe poverty did not qualify for educational
support. The categorisation system
allowed only those learners with organic, medical disabilities access to
support programmes.
The impact of this policy was that only 20% of
learners with disabilities were accommodated in special schools. The World Health Organisation has calculated
that between 2.2 per cent and 2.6 per cent of learners in any school system
could be identified as disabled or impaired.
An application of these percentages to the South African school
population would project an upper limit of about 400,000 disabled or impaired learners.as
disabled or impaired
Current statistics show that only about 64,200 learners with
disabilities or impairments are accommodated in about 380 special schools. This indicates that, potentially, 280,000 250 000 learners with disabilities or
impairments are unaccounted for.
The results of decades of segregation and systematic
under- resourcing are apparentvisible
in the imbalance between special schools that catered exclusively for white
disabled learners and those that catered exclusively for black disabled
learners. It is therefore imperative
that the continuing inequities in the special schools sector are eradicated and
that the process through which the learner, teacher and professional support
services populations become representative of the South African population is
accelerated.
In this White Paper we outline how the P policy will:
q
Systematically move away from using segregation according
to categories of disabilities as an organising principle for institutions;
q
Base the provision of education for learners with
disabilities on the intensity of support needed to overcome the debilitating
impact of those disabilities..
q
Place an emphasis on supporting learners through full
service schools that will have a bias towards particular disabilities depending
on need and support;
q
Direct how the initial facilities will be set up and how
the additional resources required would be accessed; .
q
Indicate how learners with disability would be identified,
assesses and incorporated into special, full service and ordinary schools in an
incremental manner; .
q
Introduce strategies and interventions that will assist
teachers to cope with a diversity of learning and teaching needs to ensure that
transitory learning difficulties are ameliorated; .
q
Give direction for the Education Support System needed; and .
q
Provide clear
signals about how current special schools will serve identified disabled
learners on site and also serve as a resource to teachers and schools in the
area.
The
National Disability Strategy condemns the segregation of persons with
disabilities from the mainstream of society.
It emphasises the need for including persons with disabilities in the
workplace, social environment, political sphere, and sports arenas
etc. The mMinistry supports this direction and
sees the establishment of an inclusive education and training system as a
cornerstone of an integrated and caring society and an education and training
system for the 21st Century.
1.1.1
Our
Constitution (Act 108 of
1996) founded our democratic state and common citizenship on the
values of human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human
rights and freedoms (Section 1 (a)).
These values summon all of us to take up the responsibility and
challenge of building a humane and caring society not for the few but for all
South Africans. In establishing an eeducation and ttraining
system for the 21st Century, we carry a special responsibility to implement
these values and to ensure that all learners, with and without disabilities,
pursue their learning potential to the fullest.
1.1.2
In building
our eeducation and ttraining
system, our Constitution (Act 108 of 1996)
places a special burden provides a special challenge to on us by requiring that we give effect to the
fundamental right to basic education for all South Africans. In Section 29 (1), it commits us to this
fundamental right, viz., “that everyone has the right to a basic education,
including adult basic education …”
1.1.3
This
fundamental right to basic education is further developed in the Constitution
in Section 9 (2), which commits the state to the achievement of equality, and
Sections 9 (3),
(4) and (5), which commits the state to non-discrimination. These clauses are particularly important for
protecting all learners, whether disabled or not.
1.1.4
The
Government’s obligation to provide basic education to all learners and its
commitment to the central principles of the Constitution is are also guided by
the recognition that a new unified eeducation
and ttraining system must be based on
equity, on redressing past imbalances and on a progressive raising of the
quality of education and training.
1.1.5
In line with
its responsibility to develop policy to guide the transformation programme that
is necessary to achieve these goals, the Ministry of Education has prepared
this White Paper for the information of all our social partners and the wider
public. This policy framework outlines the Ministry’s commitment to the
provision of educational opportunities in particular for those learners who
experience or have experienced barriers to learning and development or who have dropped out
of learning because of arising from the inability of the education and
training system to accommodate the diversity of learning needs and those
learners who continue to be excluded from it.
1.1.6
The White
Paper outlines how the education and training system must transform itself to
contribute to establishing a caring and humane society, how it must change to
accommodate the full range of learning needs and the mechanisms that should be
put in place.
1.1.7
Particular
attention shall be paid to achieving these objectives through a realistic and
effective implementation process that moves responsibly towards the development
of a system that accommodates and respects diversity. This process will require
a phasing in of strategies that are directed at departmental, institutional,
instructional and curriculum transformation.
It will also require the vigorous participation of our social partners
and our communities so that social exclusion and negative stereotyping can be
eliminated.
1.2.1
This White
Paper arises out of the need for changes to be made to the provision of
education and training so that it is responsive and sensitive to the diverse
range of learning needs. Education
White Paper No. 1 on Education and Training (1995) acknowledged the importance
of providing an effective response to the unsatisfactory educational
experiences of learners with special educational needs, including those within
the mainstream whose educational needs were inadequately accommodated.
1.2.2
In order to
address this concern within its commitment to an integrated and comprehensive wapproach to all areas of education, the
Ministry appointed a National Commission on Special Needs in Education and
Training and a National Committee on Education Support Services in October
1996. A joint report on the findings of
these two bodies was presented to the Minister in November 1997, and the final
report was published in February 1998.
The Ministry released a Consultative Paper (Department of Education. Consultative Paper No. 1 on Special
Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System. August 30, 1999) based to a large extent on
the recommendations made to the Minister in this report.
1.2.3
The
Consultative Paper advocates inclusion based on the principle that learning
disabilities arise from the education system rather than the learner. Notwithstanding this approach, it made use
of terms such as “learners with special education needs” and “learners with
mild to severe learning difficulties" that are part of the language of the
approach that sees learning disabilities as arising from within the
learner. There should be consistency
between the inclusive approach that is embraced, viz., that barriers to
learning exist primarily within the learning system, and the language in use in
our policy papers. Accordingly, the
White Paper adopts the use of the terminology “barriers to learning and
development”. It will retain the
internationally acceptable terms of “disability” and “impairments” when
referring specifically to those learners whose barriers to learning and
development are rooted in organic / medical causes.
1.2.4
A detailed report on
the Department’s response to submissions generated by the Consultative Paper
can be found in Annexure A.
1.3 The
current profile and distribution of special schools and learner enrolment
1.3.1
Based on data from our Education Management Information System
(EMIS)(Department of Education, Pretoria), the following is the distribution of
special schools, learner enrolment and individual learner expenditure across
all provincial departments of education.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Provinces |
No of Special
Schools |
No of Learners In Special Schools |
% of learners in Special Schools |
% of total no of special schools in
province |
Per learner Expenditure |
Eastern Cape |
41 |
6 483 |
0.28% |
10.79% |
13 746 |
Free State |
19 |
3 127 |
0.40% |
5.00% |
22 627 |
Gauteng |
96 |
25 451 |
1.62% |
25.26% |
11 049 |
KwaZulu Natal |
58 |
7 631 |
0.28% |
15.26% |
21 254 |
Mpumalanga |
15 |
2 692 |
0.29% |
3.95% |
17 839 |
Northern Cape |
8 |
1 392 |
0.68% |
2.11% |
15 749 |
Northern |
19 |
4 250 |
0.23% |
5.00% |
16 609 |
North West |
42 |
4 364 |
0.46% |
11.05% |
13 015 |
Western Cape |
82 |
9 213 |
0.96% |
21.58% |
28 635 |
Totals |
380 |
64 603 |
0.52% |
100.00% |
17 838 |
1.3.2 From national census data on disabled persons we can further see
the extent of disparities in the provision of education for learners with
disabilities.
Census data: Distribution of disabled persons per
category per province.
Prov. |
Sight
|
Hear-ing
|
Physi-cal
|
Mental
|
Multi-ple
|
Not speci-fied
|
Total
|
% per prov. |
% of popu-lation |
EC
|
161898 |
68531 |
115717 |
41432 |
35997 |
38604 |
462179 |
17.39 |
1.14 |
FS
|
133614 |
33045 |
41960 |
13947 |
16461 |
18127 |
257154 |
9.68 |
0.63 |
Gaut.
|
211769 |
59868 |
69936 |
24033 |
26030 |
63906 |
455542 |
17.14 |
1.12 |
KZN
|
183758 |
76034 |
129894 |
42646 |
24895 |
44863 |
502090 |
18.89 |
1.24 |
MP
|
98322 |
31895 |
41381 |
12211 |
9019 |
19085 |
211913 |
7.97 |
0.52 |
NC
|
18529 |
6083 |
9052 |
3791 |
2403 |
7137 |
46995 |
1.77 |
0.12 |
NP
|
113088 |
51416 |
60078 |
22578 |
16019 |
33690 |
296869 |
11.17 |
0.73 |
NW
|
129442 |
37571 |
54706 |
17768 |
16913 |
23134 |
279534 |
10.52 |
0.69 |
WC
|
40603 |
18965 |
35051 |
14146 |
6499 |
30174 |
145438 |
5.47 |
0.36 |
TOT.
|
1091023 |
383408 |
557775 |
192552 |
154236 |
278720 |
2657714 |
100.0 |
6.55 |
% per disabi-lity
|
41.05 |
14.43 |
20.99 |
7.25 |
5.80 |
10.49 |
100.00 |
|
|
% per popula-tion
|
2.69 |
0.94 |
1.37 |
0.47 |
0.38 |
0.69 |
6.55 |
|
|
1.3.3.
Analysis of
the data reveals the extent of the disparities in provision for learners with
disabilities, for example:
q
The incidence
of disabilities in the Eastern Cape constitutes 17.39% of the disabled
population yet the province has only 10.79% of the total number of special
schools.
q
Gauteng has
17.14% of the disabled population but has 25.26% of the schools.
q
The Western
Cape has 5.47% of the disabled population but has 21.58% of the schools.
1.3.4
This mismatch
between needs and provision is a direct result of previous apartheid policies
that allocated facilities on a racial basis.
These policies also centralised provision within the Western Cape and
Gauteng so that the vast majority of learners today attend residential special
schools in a province other than their own since no facilities were available
in their province of residence.
1.3.5
A comparison
between the overall incidence of disabilities and the number of learners
accommodated in school also reveals stark disparities, for example:
q
0.28% of
learners in the Eastern Cape are enrolled in special schools yet the overall
incidence figure for the population of disabled persons (of all ages) is
17.39%.
q
This pattern
is repeated across provinces indicating that significant numbers of learners
who – based on the traditional model - should be receiving educational support
in special schools are not getting any.
q
While the
national total incidence figure for disabilities (of all ages) is 6.55%, the
total numbers of learners in special schools is 0.52%.
1.3.6
The data also
demonstrates that learner expenditure on learners with disabilities also varies
significantly across provinces, ranging from R11,049, in Gauteng to R28,635 in
the Western Cape and R22,627 in the Free State. While this distribution of learner expenditure demonstrates
inefficiency in the use of resources, it also demonstrates the absence of a
uniform resourcing strategy and national provisioning norms for learners with
disabilities.
1.3.7
In an
inclusive education and training system, a wider spread of educational support
services will be created in line with what learners with disabilities
require. This means that learners who
require low-intensive support would receive this in ordinary schools and those
requiring moderate support would receive this in full service schools. Learners who require high-intensive
educational support would continue to receive such support in special schools.
Population selected: |
Total
|
Using WHO min. of 2.2% |
Using WHO max. of 2.6% |
A: Total
population age 7-15 using Census ’96 shows learners in compulsory age |
8,291,000 |
182,000 |
216,000 |
B: Total
population age 6-15 using Census ’96 shows inclusion of Grade R |
9,225,000 |
203,000 |
240,000 |
C: Total school
population age 6-18 using Census ’96 |
11,734,000 |
258,000 |
305,000 |
D: Total
population in public + indepen- dent ordinary + special schools, 1999, DoE
figures |
12,378,000 |
272,000 |
322,000 |
E: D + Grade R
cohort from B |
13,312,000 |
293,000 |
346,000 |
1.3.8 Based on the calculations in the table above and taking into
account the number of learners who are currently accommodated in special
schools, 64,603, our estimate of a reasonable expectation, before adjustments
for growth, of disabled learners who are out of school is 260,000. Our estimate
of the upper limit of out of school disabled learners is 280,000.
1.4 What is
inclusive education and training?
1.4.1 In
this White Paper inclusive education and training:
q
Is about
acknowledging that all children and youth can learn and that all children and
youth need support..
q
Is accepting
and respecting the fact that all learners are different in some way and have
different learning needs which are equally valued and an ordinary part of our
human experience.
q
Is about
enabling education structures, systems and learning methodologies to meet the
needs of all learners. .
q
Acknowledges
and respects differences in learners, whether due to age, gender, ethnicity,
language, class, disability, or HIV status., etc.
q
Is broader
than formal schooling and acknowledges that learning also occurs in the home
and community, and within formal and informal manners.modes and structures.
q
Is about
changing attitudes, behaviour, teaching methodologies, curricula and the
environment to meet the needs of all learners..
q
Is about
maximising the participation of all learners in the culture and the curricula
of educational institutions and uncovering and minimising barriers to learning;
and,
q
Is about
empowering learners by developing their individual strengths and enabling them
to participate critically in the process of learning.
1.4.2
It is clear that some learners may require more intensive and
specialised forms of support to be able to develop to their full
potential. An inclusive education and
training system is organised so that it can provide various levels and kinds of
support to learners and educators.
1.4.3
Believing in and supporting a policy of inclusive education is not
enough to ensure that such a system will work in practice. Accordingly, we will evaluate carefully what
resources we already have within the system and how these existing resources
and capacities can be strengthened and transformed so that they contribute to
the building of an inclusive system. We
will also decide on where the immediate priorities lie and put in place
mechanisms to address these first.
1.4.4 In this White Paper we also distinguish between mainstreaming and
inclusion as we describe below:
“Mainstreaming” or “Integration”
|
“Inclusion”
|
Mainstreaming is about getting a learner to ‘fit in’
to a particular kind of system or integrating them into this existing system. |
Inclusion is about recognising and respecting the
differences among all learners and building on the similarities. |
Mainstreaming is about giving some learners extra
support so that they can ‘fit in’ or be integrated into the ‘normal’
classroom routine. Learners are assessed by specialists who diagnose and
prescribe technical interventions such as the placement of learners in
programmes. |
Inclusion is about supporting all learners,
educators and the system as a whole so that the full range of learning needs
can be met. The focus is on teaching and learning factors, and places
emphasis on the development of good teaching strategies that would be of
benefit to all learners. |
Mainstreaming and integration focus on changes that
need to take place in the learner so that they can ‘fit in.” Here the focus is
on the learner. |
Inclusion focuses on overcoming barriers in the
system that prevent it from meeting the full range of learning needs. The
focus is on the adaptation of and support systems available in the classroom.
|
1.5 Building an inclusive education and
training system. The ,first steps.
1.5.1 The Ministry accepts that a broad range of
learning needs exists
among the learner population at any point in time, and that where these are not
met, learners may fail to learn effectively or be excluded from the learning
system. In this regard, different
learning needs arise from a range of factors including physical, mental,
sensory, neurological and developmental impairments, psycho-social disturbances, differences in
intellectual ability, particular life experiences or socio-economic
deprivation. Different learning needs
may also arise because of:
q
Negative
attitudes to and stereotyping of difference.
q
An inflexible
curriculum.
q
Inappropriate
languages or language of learning and teaching.
q
Inappropriate
communication.
q
Inaccessible
and unsafe built environments.
q
Inappropriate
and inadequate support services.
q
Inadequate
policies and legislation.
q
The
non-recognition and non-involvement of parents, and
q
Inadequately
and inappropriately trained education managers and educators.
In accepting this approach it is essential
to acknowledge that the learners who are most vulnerable to
barriers to learning and exclusion in South Africa are those whom have historically been termed ‘learners with
special education needs’ i.e. learners with disabilities and impairments. Their increased vulnerability has arisen
largely because of the historical nature and extent of the educational support
provided.
1.5.2
As will be
obvious from a reading of the factors contributing to the diverse range of
learning needs, it is possible to identify barriers to learning operative
within the learner or the education and training system. These may also arise during the learning
process and be temporary, and can be addressed through a variety of mechanisms
and processes. Interventions or
strategies at different levels such as the classroom, the school, the district,
the provincial and national departments and systems will be essential to
prevent them from causing learning to be ineffective. Interventions or strategies will also be essential to avoid
barriers to learning from contributing to the exclusion of learners from the
curriculum and/or from the education and training system.
Human resources development for classroom
teachers
Classroom teachers will be our primary resource for
achieving our goals of an inclusive education and training system. This means that teachers will need to
improve their skills and knowledge, and develop new ones. Staff development at the school and district
level will be critical to putting in place successful integrated educational
practices. Ongoing assessment of
teachers’ needs through our developmental appraisal followed by structured
programmes to meet these needs will make a critical contribution to inclusion.
1.
In mainstream
education, priorities will include multi-level classroom instruction so that
teachers can prepare main lessons with variations that are responsive to
individual learner needs; co-operative learning; curriculum enrichment; and,
dealing with learners with behavioural problems.
2.
In special
schools/resource centres, priorities will include orientation to new roles
within district support services of support to neighbourhood schools, and new
approaches that focus on problem solving and the development of learners’
strengths and competencies rather than focussing on their shortcomings only.
3.
In
full-service schools, priorities will include orientation to and training in
new roles focusing on multi-level classroom instruction, co-operative learning,
problem solving and the development of learners’ strengths and competencies
rather than focussing on their shortcomings only.
4.
Education
support personnel within district support services will be oriented to and
trained in their new roles of providing support to all teachers and other
educators. Training will focus on
supporting all learners, educators and the system as a whole so that the full
range of learning needs can be met. The focus will be on teaching and learning factors,
and emphasis will be placed on the development of good teaching strategies that
would be of benefit to all learners; on overcoming barriers in the system that
prevent it from meeting the full range of learning needs; and on adaptation of
and support systems available in the classroom.
5.
Management
and governance development programmes will be revised to incorporate
orientation to and training in the management and governance implications of
each of the categories of institutions within the inclusive education and
training system, viz., special, full-service and mainstream. Training will focus on how to identify and
address barriers to learning.
1.5.3
This approach
to addressing barriers to learning and exclusion is consistent with a
learner-centred approach to teaching and learning. It recognises that developing learners’ strengths and empowering
and enabling them to participate actively and critically in the learning
process involves identifying and overcoming the causes of learning
difficulties. The approach is also
consistent with a systemic and developmental approach to understanding problems
and planning action. It is consistent
with new international approaches that focus on providing quality education for
all learners.
What are
curriculum and institutional barriers to learning and how do we remove these?
One of the most significant
barriers to learning for learners in special and ‘ordinary’ schools is the
curriculum. In this case barriers to
learning arise from different aspects of the curriculum such as:
q
The content
(i.e. what is taught).
q
The language
or medium of instruction.
q
How the
classroom or lecture is organised and managed.
q
The methods
and processes used in teaching.
q
The pace of
teaching and the time available to complete the curriculum.
q
The learning
materials and equipment that is used, and
q
How learning
is assessed.
What can be done to overcome these barriers
and who will assist institutions to do this?
The most important way of addressing
barriers arising from the curriculum is to make sure that the process of
teaching and learning is flexible enough to accommodate different learning
needs and styles. The curriculum must
therefore be made more flexible across all bands of education so that it is
accessible to all learners, irrespective of their learning needs. One of the tasks of the district support
team will be to assist educators in institutions in creating greater
flexibility in their teaching methods and in the assessment of learning. They
will also provide illustrative learning programmes, learning support materials
and assessment instruments.
1.5.4
Embracing
this approach as the basis for establishing an inclusive education and training
system does not mean that we should then proceed to declare it as policy and
hope that its implementation will proceed smoothly within the
all provincial systems and all education and training
institutions. Rather, the successful
implementation of this policy will rely on a substantive understanding of the
real experiences and capabilities of our provincial systems and education and
training institutions, the setting of achievable policy objectives and
priorities over time and regular reporting on these. Successful policy implementation will also rely on the
identification of key levers for policy change and innovation within our provincial
systems and our education and training institutions.
1.5.5
It is this
approach that lies at the heart of this White Paper: Aa determination to
establish an inclusive education and training system as our response to the
call to action to establish a caring and humane society, and a recognition that
within an education and training system that is engaging in multiple and
simultaneous policy change under conditions of severe resource constraints, we must determine
policy priorities, identify key levers for change and put in place successful
South African models of inclusion.
1.5.6
Against this
background, we identify within this White Paper the following six key
strategies and levers for establishing our inclusive education and training
system:
1.5.6.1
The
qualitative improvement of special schools and settings for the learners that
they serve and their conversion to resource centres that are integrated into
district-based support teams.
.
The place
and role of special schools in an inclusive education system.
As we described earlier,
special schools currently provide, in a racially segregated manner, education
services of varying quality.
1. While special schools
provide critical education services to learners who require intense levels of
support they also accommodate learners who require much less support and should
ideally be in mainstream schools.
2. When implementing our
policy on inclusion we will pay particular attention to raising the overall
quality of education services that special schools provide.
3. We will also ensure that
learners who require intense levels of support receive these services since
mainstream schools will be unable to provide them.
4. In addition to these
roles, special schools will have a very important role to play in an inclusive
system. The new roles for these schools would include providing particular
expertise and support, especially professional support in curriculum,
assessment and instruction, as part of the district support team to
neighbourhood schools, especially ‘full service’ schools. This role also includes providing
appropriate and quality educational provision for those learners who are
already in these settings or who may require accommodation in settings
requiring secure care or specialised programmes with high levels of support.
5. Improved quality of
special schools will also include the provision of comprehensive education
programmes that provide life-skills training and programme-to-work
linkages. Here is an example of how a
special school can operate a resource centre in their district.
A special school has specialised skills
available among its staff and has developed learning materials to specifically
assist learners with visual impairments.
They may also have facilities for Braille available at the school. The professional staff at this school, as
part of their role in the district support team could run a training workshop
in their district for other educators on how to provide additional support in
the classroom to visually-impaired learners. The special school could produce
learning materials in Braille and make them available through a lending system
to other schools in the district. The
school could also set up a “helpline” for educators or parents to telephone in
with queries.
6. But, what will be done to
help special schools take on this additional role? The White Paper explains that to assist special schools to
function as resource centres in the district support system, there will be a
qualitative upgrading of their services.
7. We will
focus especially on the training of their staff for their new roles. This process of upgrading will take place
once we have completed our audit of the programmes, services and facilities in
all 378 special schools and independent special schools.
1.5.6.2
The
mobilisation of the approximately 280,000 disabled children and youth outside
of the school system.(based on the 5% prevalence
predicted by recent October Household Surveys and the number of learners with
disabilities within the school system).
1.5.6.3
Within
mainstream schooling, the designation and conversion of approximately 500 out
of 20,000 primary schools to full service schools, beginning with the thirty
school districts that are part of the national district development
programme. Similarly, within adult
basic, further and higher education, the designation and establishment of full
service educational institutions. The
eventual number of full service institutions (beyond the target of 500) would
be governed by our needs and available resource.s.
What are full- service schools and colleges
and how do we intend establishing them?
1.5.6.4
Within
mainstream education, the general orientation and introduction of management,
governing bodies and professional staff to the inclusion model, and the
targeting of early identification of disabilities and intervention in the
Foundation Phase.
1.5.6.5
The
establishment of district-based support teams to provide a co-ordinated
professional support service that draws on expertise in further and higher
education and local communities, targeting special schools and specialised
settings, designated full service and other primary schools and educational
institutions, beginning with thirty school districts. .
1.5.6.6
Finally, we
will prioritise the implementation of a national advocacy and information
programme in support of the inclusion model focusing on the roles,
responsibilities and rights of all learning institutions, educators parents and
local communities and highlighting the focal programmes and reporting on their
progress.
1.6 HIV/AIDS
and other infectious diseases
1.6.1
The
development of an inclusive education and training system must take into
account the incidence and the impact of the spread of the HIV/AIDS and other
infectious diseases.
1.6.2
For planning
purposes the Ministry will need to ascertain, in particular, the consequences
for the curriculum, the expected enrolment and drop-out rates and the funding
implications for both the short- and long-terms.
1.6.3
The Ministry
will attempt to gather this information from an internally commissioned study
as well as from other research being conducted in this area.
In the next chapter we elaborate on these
six strategies and levers for change that constitute the core of our policy
framework for establishing an inclusive education and training system.
THE FRAMEWORK FOR ESTABLISHING AN INCLUSIVE
EDUCATION AND TRAINING SYSTEM
2.1.1 The central objective of this White Paper
is to extend the policy foundations, frameworks and programmes of existing
policy for all bands of education and training so that our education and
training system will recognise and accommodate the diverse range of learning
needs.
2.1.2
The most
significant conceptual change from current policy is that the development of
education and training must be premised on the understanding that:
q
All children,
youth and adults have the potential to learn within all bands of education and thosethey all require support.
q
Many learners
experience barriers to learning or drop out primarily because of the inability
of the system to recognise and accommodate the diverse range of learning needs
typically through inaccessible physical plants, curricula, assessment, learning
materials and instructional methodologies.
ThisThe approach advocated in this White Paper is
fundamentally different from traditional ones that assume that barriers to learning
reside primarily within the learner and accordingly, learner support should
take the form of specialist, typically medical interventions.
q Establishing an inclusive education and
training system will require changes to mainstream education so that learners
experiencing barriers to learning can be identified early and appropriate
support provided. It will also require
changes to special schools and specialised settings so that learners who
experience mild to moderate disabilities can be adequately accommodated within
mainstream education through appropriate support from district-based support
teams including special schools and specialised settings. This will require that the quality of
provision of special schools and specialised settings be upgraded so that they
can provide a high quality service for learners with severe and multiple
disabilities.
2.1.3
We are
persuaded that the inclusion of learners with disabilities that stem from
impaired intellectual development will require curriculum adaptation rather
than major structural adjustments or sophisticated equipment. Accordingly, their accommodation within an
inclusive education and training framework would be more easily facilitated
than the inclusion of those learners who require intensive support through
medical interventions, structural adjustments to the built environment and/or
assistive devices with minimal curriculum adaptation. Given the serious human resources constraints in the country and
the demands for justice, there is an onus on the Government to ensure that all
human resources are developed to their fullest potential. In the long run such a policy will lead also
to a reduction in the Government’s fiscal burden as the inclusive education and
training system increases the number of productive citizens relative to those
who are dependant on the state for social security grants.
2.1.4
The central
features of the inclusive education and training system put forward in this
White Paper are:
q
Criteria for
the revision of existing policies and legislation for all bands of education
and training, and frameworks for governance and organisation; .
q
A
strengthened district-based education support service; .
q
The expansion
of access and provision; .
q
Support for
curriculum development and assessment, institutional development and quality
improvement and assurance; .
q
A national
information, advocacy and mobilisation campaign; .and
q
A revised funding resourcing strategy.
2.1.5
It is also essential to acknowledge that many of the barriers to
learning that we have drawn attention to in this White Paper are being tackled
within many other national and provincial programmes of the dDepartments of eEducation, hHealth, wWelfare, and pPublic wWorks in particular,
etc.
2.1.6
To illustrate, in the case of the Department of Education, the COLTS
programme previously, and now the Tirisano programme, the District
Development Programme, Curriculum 2005, Language in Education Policy, Systemic
evaluation (of the attainment of Grade 3 learners), the HIV/AIDS Life Skills
Programme and the joint programmes with the Business Trust on school efficiency
and quality improvement are examples of programmes that are already seeking to
uncover and remove barriers to learning experienced in mainstream education.
2.1.7
The Department of Public Works is implementing a job creation project to
provide ramp access for learners on wheelchairs to schools.
2.1.8
The
Department of Health is implementing an Integrated Nutrition Strategy including
the Primary Schools Nutrition Project to provide learners from poor families with
a nutritious meal. The Department also
provides free health care for children younger than six years, while the
Technical Guidelines on Immunisation in South Africa (1995) provides for
children younger than five years to be prioritised for nutritional intervention.
2.1.9
The
Department of Social Development prioritises the provision of social
development services to children under five years. The Department also provides a child support grant for needy
children younger than seven years.
2.1.10
All of these
programmes would be enhanced
by policies and programmes being advocated in this White Paper.
2.1.11
Accordingly, in this White Paper, the Ministry puts forward a
framework for transformation and change which aims to ensure increased and
improved access to the education and training system for those learners who
experience the most severe forms of learning difficulties and are most
vulnerable to exclusion.
2.1.12
This will,
of necessity,
require that we focus our attention on those learners in special schools and
settings and those in remedial or special classes in ordinary schools and
settings.
2.1.13
However, while we must focus our efforts on improving the capacity of
the education and training system to accommodate learners who experience the
various forms of learning difficulties, our focus will require the
transformation and change of the entire education and training system for us to
be able to accomplish these objectives and to enable mainstream education and
training to recognise and address the causes and effects of learning
difficulties in ‘ordinary’ classes and lecture halls.
2.1.14
Transformation and change must therefore focus on the full range of
education and training services: the organisations – national and provincial
departments of education, further
and higher education institutions, - which have
different responsibilities for education and training; educational institutions schools -–(both special and ordinary), - education support services, curriculum and
assessment, education managers and educators, and parents and communities. These are put
forward in summary form below.
2.2 The framework for establishing an
inclusive education and training system.
2.2.1 Education and training policies,
legislation, advisory bodies and governance and organisational arrangements
2.2.1.1 In order for the
Ministry to establish an inclusive education and training system we shall
review all existing policies and legislation for general, further and higher
education and training so that these would be consistent with the policy
proposals put forward in this White Paper.
The South African Schools Act (1996), the Higher Education Act (1997),
the Further Education and Training Act (1998), the Adult Basic Education and
Training Act (2000) and the accompanying White Papers already provide the basis
for the establishment of an inclusive education and training system. Accordingly, the Ministry shall require all
advisory bodies to provide it with advice on how to implement the policy
proposals contained in this White Paper. The Ministry shall also review the
memberships of all advisory bodies to ensure that appropriate expertise and
representation enables these bodies to
advise the Minister and Members of the Provincial Executive Councils
responsible for Education,
on goals, priorities and targets for the successful establishment of the
inclusive education and training system.
2.2.1.2 In revising policies, legislation and frameworks, the
Ministry shall give particular, but not exclusive, attention to those that
relate to the school and college systems.
Policies, legislation and frameworks for the school and college systems
must provide the basis for overcoming the causes and effects of barriers to
learning. Specifically, we shall revise
admission policies so that learners who can be accommodated outside of special
schools and specialised settings can be accommodated within designated full
service or other schools and settings.
Age grade norms shall be revised to accommodate those learners requiring
a departure from these norms as a result of their particular learning
needs. Simultaneously the Ministry
shall collaborate with the Ministries of Health and Social Development to
design and implement early identification, assessment and education programmes
for learners with disabilities in the age group 0-9 years. Boarding facilities and transport policies
and practices shall be reviewed within the understanding that the neighbourhood
or full service school should be promoted as the first choice.
2.2.1.3 In respect of reform schools and schools of industry,
the Ministry will collaborate with the Ministry of Social Development and the
provincial departments of education to ensure that children and youth awaiting
trial in these schools are provided with a supportive and effective learning
and teaching environment, and that appropriate assessment practices and clear
criteria and guidelines for their placement are established.
2.2.1.4
The
situation of learners with disabilities and impairments iIn higher education
institutions is not significantly different from that
in special schools and settings, and remedial or special classes in ordinary
schools and settings. Aaccess for disabled
learners and other learners who experience barriers to learning and development
can be achieved through properly co-ordinated learner support services, and the
cost-effective provision of such support services can be made possible through
regional collaboration. Institutional
planning is now a critical part of national planning for higher education, and
higher education institutions will be required to plan the provision of
programmes for learners with disabilities and impairments through regional
collaboration. This is now a
requirement of the National Plan for Higher Education.
2.2.1.5
An aspect of the development of learning settings that the Ministry shall
give urgent attention to is the creation of barrier-free physical
environments. The manner in which the
physical environment such as buildings and grounds is developed and organised
contributes to the level of independence and equality that learners with
disability enjoy. The physical
environment of most ordinary schools and learning settings are not barrier-free
and even where they may be barrier-free, accessibility has not been planned. Accordingly, space and cost norms for
buildings, including grounds, shall focus on the design and construction of new
buildings, as well as the renovation of existing buildings. These actions shall be undertaken in
collaboration with the Ministry of Public Works and provincial departments of
public works.It
will be essential to establish an effective and appropriate inter-sectoral
approach to policy development and implementation in respect of addressing in a
wholistic, integrated manner the causes and effects of severe learning
difficulties. The most effective structure
to take on this task is the National Programme of Action for Children (NPAC),
and it should include a specific focus on disability and on those who are older
than 18 years.
2.2.1.6
In beginning to
implement the policy proposals put forward in this White Paper, it will be
essential to match the capacity of Government with the roles proposed for it.
Professional development programmes shall focus on the development of effective
leadership in policy, administration and programme implementation, the
establishment of management information systems, and the development of
competencies necessary for addressing severe learning difficulties within all
branches and sections of the national and provincial departments of education.
2.2.1.7
The National Norms and
Standards for School Funding will apply to the new Inclusive Education and
Training System and its application will be customised to ensure equity and
redress.
2.2.2 Strengthening
education support services
2.2.2.1
The Ministry
believes that the key to reducing barriers to learning within all education and
training lies in a strengthened education support service.
2.2.2.2
This
strengthened education support service shall have at its centre new
district-based support teams that comprise of
staff from provincial district, regional and head offices and from special
schools. The primary function of these
district support teams will be to evaluate programmes, diagnose their
effectiveness and suggest modifications. Through supporting teaching, learning
and management they would build the capacity of schools, early childhood and
adult basic education and training centres, colleges and higher education
institutions to recognise and address severe learning difficulties and to
accommodate a range of learning needs.
2.2.2.3
At the institutional level, in
general, further and higher education, we shall require institutions to
establish institution-level support teams.
The primary function of these teams will be to put in place properly
co-ordinated learner and educator support services. These services will support the learning and teaching process by
identifying and addressing learner, educator and institutional needs. Where
appropriate, these teams should be strengthened by expertise from the local
community, district support teams and higher education institutions. District support teams will provide the full
range of education support services such as professional development in
curriculum and assessment to these institutional –level
support teams.
2.2.2.4
The Ministry
shall also investigate how, within the principles of the post provisioning
model, designated posts can be created in all district support teams. Staff appointed into these posts can,
as members of the district support team, develop and co-ordinate school-based
support for all educators.
2.2.2.5
The Ministry
recognises that the success of our approach to addressing barriers to learning
and the provision forof the full range of diverse learning
needs lies with our education managers and educator cadre. Accordingly, and in collaboration with our provincial
departments of education, the Ministry shall, through the district support
teams provide access for educators to appropriate pre-service and in-service
education and training and professional support services. The Ministry shall also ensure that the
norms and standards for the education and training of teachers, trainers and
other development practitioners include competencies ofin addressing
barriers to learning and provide for the development of specialised
competencies such as life-skills, counselling and learning support.
2.2.2.6
Special
schools and settings shall be converted to resource centres and integrated into
district support teams so that that they can provide specialised professional
support in curriculum, assessment and instruction to neighbourhood
schools. This new role shall be
performed by special schools and settings in addition to the services that they
provide to their existing learner base.
In order to ensure that special schools and settings are well prepared
for their new role, we shall conduct an audit of their current capacities and
the quality of their provision, raise the quality of their provision, upgrade
them to resource centres and train their staff to assume these new roles as
part of the district support team.
2.2.2.7
In revising
and aligning our education support service, we shall focus our efforts on
establishing a co-ordinated education support service along a continuum from
national through to provincial departments of education, through to schools,
colleges, adult and early childhood learning centres, and higher education,
which is sensitive to and accommodates diversity, with appropriate capacities,
policies and support services.
2.2.3 Expanding provision and access
2.2.3.1
A central
feature of our programme to build an inclusive education and training system is
the enrolment of the approximately 280,000 disabled children and youth of
compulsory school-going age that are not accommodated in our school system.
2.2.3.2
The Ministry
will put in place a public education programme to inform and educate parents of
these children and youth, and will collaborate with the Department of Social
Development to develop a programme to support their special welfare needs,
including the provision of devices such as wheel chairs and hearing aids.
2.2.3.3
To accommodate
these children and youth of school-going age, we shall, in collaboration with
the provincial departments of education designate and then convert, as a first step,
primary schools to full service schools, beginning in those school districts
that form part of the national schools district development programme. We expect eventually to designate and convert to
a full service school at least one primary school within each of our school
districts taking into account the location of the special schools/resource
centres. These full service schools
will be provided with the necessary physical and material resources and the
staff and professional development that are essential to accommodate the full
range of learning needs. In this manner
we will expand provision and access to disabled learners within neighbourhood
schools alongside their non-disabled peers.
2.2.3.4
Together with
the provincial departments of education the Ministry will monitor closely the
successes and impact of these pilot schools to inform the expansion of the
model to other primary and high schools.
2.2.3.5
With the
collaboration of the provincial departments of education and school governing
bodies, full service schools will be made available to adult learners as part
of public adult learning programmes.
2.2.4 In collaboration with the provincial departments of education
and on the advice of the Council on Higher Education, the Ministry shall
similarly designate two further education and training institutions per
province and one higher education institution per region as full service
education institutions.Further Education and Training
2.2.4.1
The Ministry will link the provision of
education to learners with disabilities stemming from
impaired intellectual development and who do not require intensive support to the general restructuring of
the further education and training sector currently being undertaken by the Ministry.
2.2.4.2
It is likely that a similar model
to that proposed for general education will be developed for the technical
colleges, namely that there
will be dedicated special colleges which will mirror the full service schools
in the general education sector.
2.2.5 Higher Education
2.2.5.1
The National
Plan for Higher Education (Ministry of Education, February 2001) commits our
higher education institutions to increasing the access of learners with special
education needs. The Ministry therefore
expects institutions to indicate in their institutional plans the strategies,
steps and time-frames they intend taking to increase enrolment of these
learners.
2.2.5.2
The Ministry
will also make recommendations
to higher education institutions regarding minimum levels of provision
for learners with special needs.
However, all higher education institutions will be required to ensure
that there is appropriate physical access for physically disabled learners.
2.2.5.3
It will not
be possible to provide relatively expensive equipment and other resources,
particularly for blind and deaf students, at all higher education
institutions. Such facilities will
therefore have to be organised on a regional basis.
2.2.6 Curriculum, assessment and quality
assurance
2.2.6.1
Central to
the accommodation of diversity in our schools, colleges, and adult and early
childhood learning centres and higher education institutions, is a flexible
curriculum and assessment policy that is accessible to all learners
irrespective of the nature of their learning needs. This is so since curricula create the most significant barrier to
learning and exclusion for many learners, whether they are in special schools or
settings, or ‘ordinary’ schools and settings.
These barriers to learning arise from within the various interlocking
parts of the curriculum, such as the content of learning programmes, the
language and medium of teaching and learning, the management and organisation
of classrooms, teaching style and pace, time-frames for completion of
curricula, the materials and equipment which have been available, and
assessment methods and techniques.
Barriers to learning and exclusion of this kind also arise from the
physical and psycho-social
environment within which learning occurs.
2.2.6.2
Accordingly,
new curriculum and assessment initiatives will be required to focus on the
inclusion of the full range of diverse learning needs. A key responsibility of the district support
teams shall be to provide curriculum, assessment and instructional support to
public adult learning centres, schools and further education institutions in
the form of illustrative learning programmes, learning support materials and
assessment instruments.
2.2.6.3
As described
earlier, the prevailing situation in special schools and settings and in
remedial classes and programmes is inappropriate, and in general fails to
provide a cost-effective and comprehensive learning experience for
participating learners. In taking the
first steps in building an inclusive education and training system, we shall
review, improve and expand participation in special schools/resource centres
and full service institutions. The
Ministry believes that these programmes should provide a comprehensive
education, and should provide life skills and programme-to-work linkages. As
described earlier, these programmes will also be required to provide their
services to neighbourhood schools. Attention shall also be given to those programmes
and settings that accommodate learners requiring secure care, specialised
programmes and/or high levels of support to ensure that these are provided in
an appropriate and cost-effective manner, and that they provide for the psycho-social needs of
these learners.
2.2.6.4
Institutional
development will therefore focus on assisting educational institutions to
recognise and address the diverse range of learning needs among learners. While
we provide in this White Paper a framework for educational practices that are
consistent with the establishment of an inclusive education and training
system, we will focus on and prioritise special schools / resource centres and
full service schools and colleges that provide education services to learners
most profoundly affected by learning barriers and exclusion.
2.2.6.5
The Ministry
fully appreciates the importance of assessment and interventions during the
early phases of life. It is during the
pre-schooling years that hearing and vision-testing programmes should reveal
early organic impairments that are barriers to learning. Community-based clinics are in the best
position to conduct an initial assessment and plan a suitable course of action
in conjunction with parents and personnel from various social services such as
education. In order to ensure the
continuity of such services throughout learning, the Ministry recognises that
it is essential that links be established between community-based clinics and
other service providers and the education and training system. Once learners have entered the formal
education system, school-based support teams should be involved centrally in
identifying 'at risk' learners and addressing barriers to learning. To achieve this important objective, the Ministry
shall work closely with the Ministries of Social Development and Health, and
the provincial departments of education.
With respect to the school system, early identification of barriers to
learning will focus on learners in the Foundation Phase (Grades R-3) who may
require support for example through the tailoring of the curriculum, assessment
and instruction.
2.2.6.6
Together with
the Department of Public Works, we will make a special effort to develop sites
of learning that provide physical access to most learners – in terms of
buildings and grounds, beginning with designated full service institutions.
2.2.6.7
Materials and
equipment, in particular devices such as hearing aids and wheelchairs will be
made progressively accessible and available to those learners who cannot gain
access to learning because of a lack of appropriate resources. In this respect, our primary focus shall be
on the designated full service institutions.
2.2.6.8
Assessment
processes will address barriers to learning and current policies and practices
will be reviewed and revised to ensure that the needs of all learners are
acknowledged and addressed.
2.2.6.9
Existing
quality assurance mechanisms at all levels of education and training, and at
all sites of learning, will facilitate the development of quality education for
all learners including those who are disabled.
2.2.7 Information, advocacy and mobilisation
2.2.7.1
Public awareness and acceptance of inclusion will be essential for the
establishment of an inclusive society and the inclusive education and training
system put forward in this White Paper.
Uncovering negative stereotypes, advocating unconditional acceptance and
winning support for the policies put forward in this White Paper will be
essential to the establishment of the inclusive education and training system.
2.2.7.2
Accordingly, the Ministry will launch an information and advocacy
campaign to communicate the policy proposals contained in this White Paper,
including the rights, responsibilities and obligations attached to these. The Ministry will also continue its
discussions with national actors and role-players to win their support for the
policy of inclusion and to review rights,;
responsibilities and obligations attached to these. One of the central thrusts of the advocacy campaign will be to
target parents since they are regarded as an important form of support.
2.2.7.3
Special attention will be given to the mobilisation of community support
for the designation of full service institutions and the conversion of special
schools to resource centres.
2.2.7.4
As part of its information, advocacy and mobilisation campaign, and
subject to the expansion of provision and access described in this White Paper,
the Ministry will target the recruitment of those learners of compulsory
school-going age who are not yet accommodated in our schools. Similarly, the Ministry will target the
recruitment of learners to the designated public adult learning centres, and
further and higher education institutions as these are established.
2.2.8 HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases
2.2.8.1
The Ministry will, on an ongoing basis, analyse the effects of HIV/AIDS
and other infectious diseases on the education system, and develop and
implement appropriate and timely programmes.
2.2.8.2
These programmes would include special measures such as strengthening
our information systems, establishing a system to identify orphans, co-ordinate
support and care programmes for such learners, put in place referral procedures
for teachers, and develop teaching guidelines on how to support orphans and
other children in distress.
2.2.8.3
In this regard, the Ministry will work closely with provincial
departments of education and the Departments of Social Development, Health and
the Public Service Administration.
2.3 Resourcing theFunding sStrategy
2.3.1
The funding
strategy outlined in this White Paper needs to be adequately resourced to
ensure successful implementation.
2.3.2
In A range of resources will to be brought to bear on the
implementation, these include human, infrastructure, time, financial,
facilities, equipment and learning support materials.Chapter 3 we describe the proposed funding
strategy for the policies advocated in this White Paper.
3.1.1 The system of educational
provision for learners with special needs inherited from the apartheid era is
clearly both inefficient and inequitable. Its inefficiency is reflected first
in the maldistribution of students with three provinces (Gauteng, Western Cape
and KwaZulu-Natal) having 236 of the 380 special schools (62%) and 65% of
learners. Given the centralization during apartheid, learners from all over the
country were required to attend schools in these provinces depending on the
nature of their needs. However, it is evident that educational provision in the
other provinces has also not been cost-effective. For instance, in the North
West province 42 schools cater for only just over 4000 students, a
learner:school ratio of 104, while in
Gauteng the learner:school ratio is approximately 265.
3.1.2
Second, individual
learner costs of provision
by province vary widely from R11,000 a year in Gauteng to R23,000 in the Free
State and R28,600
in the Western
Cape. These discrepancies
are due largely to the racial organisation of special schools,
with schools for Whites most highly resourced.
Additionally, these variances probably also reflect other inefficiencies in provision
as well.
3.1.3
The system has been historically
iniquitous because the focus of provision
has been on the white population and remains inadequate for the black
population, particularly for Africans in rural areas and small towns. As stated
earlier, the segregation of learners on the basis of race was extended to
incorporate segregation on the basis of disability. The challenge therefore is
to transform the current system to make it more efficient, more equitable and more
just.
3.1.4
The policy proposals described in
the White Paper are aimed at developing an inclusive education and training
system that will ensure that educational provision for learners with special
needs is largely integrated over time into what are currently considered
‘ordinary schools’.
3.2.1 The development of the inclusive
education and training system, and in particular, the development of
appropriate funding strategies, must take account of various factors that will impact
on the nature of, and the extent to which such a system can be developed. Foremost amongst these factors are the human
resource, fiscal and institutional capacities.
3.2.2
The high, although
improving learner: teacher ratios is putting a considerable burden on all professionals in the education
system, both
in teaching and management. Expanding access and provision to disabled
children and youth of school-going age that are currently out of school implies a steep increase in
demands placed on these professionals. Given current financial capacity (see below) as well as the
inability of the education system to produce adequate numbers of such individuals in the short
term, progress towards the inclusive education and training system will be
dependent heavily on more effective usage of current skills in the ‘special
needs’ sector. This is a fundamental proposition of the White Paper.
3.2.3
In the context of the current low
growth rate of the South African economy and the relatively large slice of the
budget that is allocated to education in nominal terms, it is unlikely that
significantly more public resources in real terms will be allocated to the
sector in the next few years.
3.2.4
The policies outlined in this White Paper will lead to
the more cost-effective usage of resources in the long term when the proposed
model is fully operational. In the short-term it is clear, however, that
additional funding will be required for “special needs” education – such
funding would have to be sought from a range of sources, in particular the
provincial education budgets and donor funding, both local and international.
3.2.5
Since
provincial governments will have responsibility for the implementation of most
of the policies outlined in this White Paper, it will be important to note that
provincial governments have only now recovered from considerable
over-expenditure of 1997/98 in the social services sector. While over-expenditure during this period in
education, in particular on personnel costs and a net increase in pupil
enrolment, dramatically reduced expenditure on critical programmes such as
special education, early childhood development and adult basic education and
training, better financial planning and management have now produced credible
budgets and expenditure patterns. The
confident but progressive establishment of an inclusive education and training
system as outlined in this White Paper must therefore also be understood
against this background.
3.2.6
The White Paper recognizes the
continued existence of these fiscal realities and capacities and thus proposes a realistic
time-frame of
twenty years for the
attainment of the inclusive education and training system.
3.2.7
It is important however, that the
limited financial resources available for the education and training of
individuals with barriers to learning are targeted to those with the greatest
need. Thus some degree of targeting on the basis of
poverty/income/socio-economic status would be required.
3.2.8
A third set of factors critical
to the success of the proposed system relates to the development of appropriate
institutional structures for delivery. The current system of provision is both
cost-ineffective and excludes individuals with barriers to learning from the
mainstream of educational provision. The White Paper proposes a mix of
institutional structures of district support systems incorporating special
schools as resource centres and full service schools to meet the challenges
of provision within an inclusive system. The costs of implementing such a
system of institutional structures especially in the transitional phase will
need to be investigated.
3.3.1 In the fiscal year 2000/01 just
less than three per cent
(2.82%) of the total education budget or approximately R1.25
billion was allocated to
special schools. This figure was slightly down from 1999/2000 (2.85%) and is
projected to remain constant for the next two years of the MTEF cycle.
3.3.2
In 2000/01, provincial
expenditure on special schools was projected to vary from a low of 1.49% in North
West Province to a high of 6.98% in the Western Cape.
3.4.1
It is estimated that during the
apartheid area, only about 20 percent of learners with disabilities were
accommodated in special schools. As stated earlier, approximately
280,000 learners are unaccounted for in the system. It is likely that some of them are in mainstream
schooling where their needs are not being catered for. However, the majority of
them are probably not in the schooling system at all. The mobilization of these
out-of-school children and youth represents one of the big challenges in the
development of the inclusive education and training system.
3.4.2
Expanding access and provision on
this scale implies the need for considerable resources, particularly staffing. At the current average staffing
ratios in special schools of around 1:10 (ranging from 1:6 to 1:16), expanding the system on the
conventional model would be impossible. However, it is expected that in an
inclusive education and training system, as the majority of individuals with
barriers to learning are integrated into ‘full service’ schools so as to
achieve a ‘natural’ geographical distribution of such learners as opposed to
the current distorted pattern resulting from apartheid, a more efficient system
will result with respect to the usage of both limited financial resources and
specialist staff. When schools are fully inclusive, a situation should ensue
that on average, a school’s population will comprise no more than a small
percentage of individuals with special education needs. Given these small
absolute numbers of learners in a school, it makes sense for specialist teachers not
to be based at each school, but as the White Paper outlines, at the district level to be
drawn upon by each school as required.
3.5.1 A large proportion of the
additional costs in the short- to medium term relate to:
·
Providing for the approximately 280,000 children and youth not in the
education system; and
·
Converting primary schools (and
later, secondary schools and colleges) to full service schools, eventually at
least one such school in
each school district in the country.
3.5.2
Both of the above have funding
implications relating to the provision of necessary physical and material
resources and the staff and requisite professional development. In addition,
with respect to the recruitment of
‘out-of-school’ learners, a sustained information, advocacy and
mobilization will need to be undertaken.
3.6.1
As stated earlier, the inclusive
education and training system will include a range of different institutions,
including special schools/resource centres and designated full service and other schools,
public adult learning centres and further and higher education institutions.
The vision and goals articulated in this White Paper reflect a twenty-year
developmental perspective.
3.6.2
For the short- to medium term,
that is the first five
years, a
three-pronged approach to funding is proposed with new conditional grants from
the national government, funding from the line budgets of provincial education
departments and donor funds, constituting the chief sources of funding.
3.6.3
A funding approach that separates
personnel and non-personnel resources will be adopted. The generation and
distribution of personnel resources will be determined through the
post-provisioning process while the School Funding Norms will govern the
generation and distribution of non-personnel resources.
3.7.1
New conditional grant funding
from the national government is proposed for non-personnel funding for the
first five years. In particular such funding will be used for two purposes.
First, it will used in both special and full service schools to provide the
necessary facilities and other material resources needed to increase access for
those currently excluded. Second, it will be used to provide some of the non-educational resources that will be required to
ensure access to the curriculum such as medication, devices such as wheelchairs, crutches, hearing aids, guide dogs, interpreters and voice activated computers,
and social workers.
3.7.2
Further investigation will be
undertaken by the Ministry regarding the magnitude of these expenditures and
how they can be phased in over the next five-year period.
3.8.1
The budgets of provincial
education departments will need to be reviewed and reformulated to meet some of
the needs of the proposed inclusive education and training system.
3.8.2
The audit of programmes offered
by existing special schools will help inform the development of a spectrum of
programme costs varying from cheapest to most expensive.
3.8.3
With respect to staffing, the
objective of the post-provisioning strategy is to allocate posts in accordance
with the actual educational support needs of the learners concerned and not,
as is currently the case, on the basis of category of
disability. The revised resourcing model would create a dedicated pool of posts
for the educational support system.
3.8.4
The achievement of this objective
necessitates a revision of the current post establishment model. Such a revision will focus on the
development of an appropriate post distribution mechanism, guidelines for post utilisation and structural and organizational
arrangements to ensure flexibility in the deployment of posts. Particular attention will be given to optimising the expertise of specialist
support personnel such as therapists, psychologists, remedial educators
and health professionals.
3.8.5
Teaching posts would be allocated
to all schools in terms of the existing post distribution model. In filling
these posts school management is obliged to ensure that the learners who
“generated” the posts are adequately catered for through appropriate and effective
educational programmes.
3.8.6
A pool of posts for the district
support teams and special schools/resource centres to provide support to schools
will be created in terms of a formula related to the differing levels of
programme costs. These posts will be top-sliced from the total pool of posts in
a province before the post distribution model is applied to schools.
3.8.7
These posts together with those
traditionally allocated to provincial education support services would thus form a pool of
specialists,
with appropriate expertise and experience. Posts would therefore be utilised for the deployment of resource persons that could
provide direct interventionist programmes to learners in a range of settings,
and/or serve as “consultant – mentors” to school management teams, classroom
teachers and school governing bodies.
3.8.8
It should be emphasised that no real increase in the
fiscal envelope is envisaged in this staffing strategy in the
short to medium-term. What is being proposed here is a much more
cost-effective use of specialist teachers than is currently the
practice.
3.9.1 Donor funding will be mobilised for short-term activities. Two
such activities are described in the White Paper:
·
The audit of existing state
special schools
as well as independent special schools; and
·
The national information,
advocacy and mobilisation campaign to expand access to those previously
excluded.
3.10
Further
education and training and higher education
3.10.1
With regard
to further education and training, the Ministry will undertake a study to
determine the costs attached to the establishment of full-service further
education and training colleges that mirror the general education sector. As stated earlier, the Ministry will link
the learning of individuals with disabilities stemming from impaired
intellectual development and who do not require intensive support to the
general restructuring of the further education and training sector currently
being undertaken by the Department. The
funding arrangements for these full-service colleges will therefore constitute
a sub-set of the broader funding strategy for the further education and
training sector.
3.10.2
The National
Plan for Higher Education requires higher education institutions to increase
the participation of learners with special education needs. The Ministry therefore expects institutions
to indicate in their institutional plans the strategies, steps and time-frames
they intend taking to increase enrolment of these learners. The Ministry will also make recommendations
to higher education institutions regarding minimum levels of provision for
learners with special needs. However,
all higher education institutions will be required to ensure that there is
appropriate physical access for physically disabled learners. It will not be possible to provide
relatively expensive equipment and other resources, particularly for blind and
deaf students, at all higher education institutions. Such facilities will therefore have to be organised on a regional
basis.
3.11.1 As stated earlier, a realistic
time frame of twenty years is proposed for the implementation of the inclusive
education and training strategy. This implementation plan can be broken down as
follows:
·
Immediate to short–term steps (2001-2003): The necessary steps will include:
a)
Implementing
a national advocacy and education programme on inclusive education.
b)
Planning and
implementing a targeted outreach programme, beginning in Government’s rural and
urban development nodes, to mobilise disabled out of school children and youth.
c)
Completing
the audit of special schools and implementing a programme to improve efficiency
and quality.
d)
Designating,
planning and implementing the conversion of thirty special schools to special
schools/resource centres in thirty designated school districts.
e)
Designating,
planning and implementing the conversion of thirty primary schools to full service
schools in the same thirty districts as (d) above.
f)
Designating,
planning and implementing the
district support teams in the same thirty districts as (d) above; and
g)
Within all
other public education institutions, on a progressive basis, the general
orientation and introduction of management, governing bodies and professional
staff to the inclusion model.
h)
Within
primary schooling, on a progressive basis, the establishment of systems and
procedures for the early identification and addressing of barriers to learning
in the Foundation Phase (Grades R-3).
·
Medium-term (Years 2004-2008): The major steps are:
i)
Transforming further
education and training and higher education institutions to recognise
and address the diverse range of learning needs of learners, especially disabled
learners;
j)
Expanding the
targeted community outreach programme in (b) from the base of Government’s
rural and urban development nodes to mobilise disabled out-of-children and
youth in line with available resources.
k) Expanding the number of special
schools/resource centres, full-service
schools and district support teams in (d), (e) and (f) in line with lessons
learnt and available
resources.
·
Long-term (2009-2021): Expanding provision to reach the target of 380
special schools/resource centres, 500 full service schools and colleges
and district support teams, and the 280,000 out of school children and youth.
3.12.1
The funding strategy that is
proposed in this White Paper is a realistic one that takes into account the
country’s fiscal realities. The important features of this strategy are its
emphasis on cost-effectiveness and exploiting the economies of scale that
result from expanding access and provision within an inclusive education and
training system.
3.12.2
For the short- to medium term,
that is the first eight years, a three-pronged approach to
funding is proposed with new conditional grants from the Government, funding from the line
budgets of provincial education departments and donor funds, constituting the
chief sources of funding.
3.12.3
Further investigations will be undertaken by the
Ministry regarding the magnitude of these expenditures and how they can be
phased in over the five-year period.
3.12.4
In order to develop a feasible
implementation plan for the envisaged twenty-year period a number of research tasks will need to
be undertaken. Such research will inform the development of the implementation
plan particularly with respect to the financial, human resource and
institutional constraints identified earlier. Research will include the following:
·
Costing of an ideal district support team.
·
Costing the
conversion of special schools to a special schools/resource centres.
·
Costing of an ideal full-service
school.
·
Costing of a
“full service” technical college.
·
Determining
the minimum levels of
provision for learners with special needs for all higher education
institutions.
·
Devising a personnel plan; and
·
Costing non-personnel
expenditure requirements.
2.6.1.22.6.1.1Human resources
account for between 85% and 90% of the budget.
The supply, utilisation and development of human resources will thus
receive commensurate emphasis.
2.6.1.1
The following
principles create a set of conceptual and operational parameters
2.6.2.1Resourcing of an
appropriate education for learners who experience severe barriers to learning
and development and/or have disabilities and impairments is based on
educational need rather than the description of disability, impairment or
barriers.
2.6.2.1
2.6.2.22.6.2.1The identified
education need is addressed via customised programmes; consequently, the level
of additional resources required by these programmes will differ in relation to
the educational need.
2.6.2.32.6.2.1Resources will be
provided to district and institution level support teams to assist in the
education of learners experiencing barriers to learning and development and not
to individual learners.
2.6.2.42.6.2.1Barriers rooted in
the education system are usually addressed by macro interventions e.g.
Tirisano, Whole school Development etc.
These barriers also tend to negatively affect up to 70% of
learners. Resourcing of these
interventions would align, cohere with and maintain current approaches,
procedures and processes.
2.6.2.52.6.2.1An assumption is
made that “needs” will exceed “means” for the foreseeable future. In such a scenario the generation of
additional resources is critical.
Partnerships with international and local donor agencies (government and
non-governmental), the business sector, community organisations and all
relevant partners will be a major element of the resourcing strategy.
2.6.2.62.6.2.1The intensity,
form, nature and duration of support necessary to ensure access to the
curriculum and optimal progression (success) of learners serves as the central
organiser for resourcing. Thus
resourcing should be targeted at the support system / programme and not the
disability. It stands to reason that
support programmes would range from minimal costs to high, intensive costs –
depending on what is needed to create learner access to the curriculum.
2.6.2.72.6.2.1Some of the
mechanisms to ensure access to the curriculum may not be purely
educational. E.g., medication,
assistive devices (wheelchair, crutches, hearing aids, guide dog, interpreter,
voice activated computer, social worker, (the list is endless). This suggests an inter-departmental approach
to resourcing e.g. the department of Health would be responsible for the
provision of medication, wheelchairs etc. and the Department of Welfare
responsible for Social work services.
2.6.2.82.6.2.1Various sources of
funding have been identified. The
line-budgets of departments, additional conditional grants and donor funds
constitute the chief sources of funding.
2.6.3.1Learners with
disabilities and impairments are considered the most vulnerable group in the
education system. The ministry has
defined disabilities and impairments using criteria based on guidelines set by
the World Health Organisation. When
applied to a school population these criteria identify between 2.2% and 2.6% of
learners as disabled or impaired.
2.6.3.22.6.3.1The focus is not
solely on this easily identified group of learners with organic-medical
barriers, but is also cognisant of the difficulties experienced by those
learners with barriers of a different nature – usually transitory and stemming
from a range of psycho-economic-socio-environmental factors. It is reckoned that these learners comprise
about 70% of learners in the system.
2.6.3.32.6.3.1It is the
responsibility of education departments to ensure that ALL learners who face
barriers (intrinsic, extrinsic, or permutations thereof) to learning and
development are assisted by effective support programmes that are tailored to
develop techniques, mechanisms, knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, structures
and systems to cope with and /or overcome these barriers.
2.6.3.42.6.3.1The resourcing
strategy seeks to provide schools, Adult Education Centres and Higher Education
institutions with additional support for these learners to be able to access
age comparative educational programmes.
2.6.4.1The mechanisms will
flow into existing effective resourcing approaches. Thus, an approach that separates personnel and non-personnel
resources will be adopted. The
generation and distribution of personnel resources will be infused in the post
provisioning process and the School Funding Norms will govern the generation
and distribution of non-personnel resources.
Non-personnel resourcing:
2.6.4.22.6.4.1Non-personnel
budgets are allocated to ordinary public schools in compliance with the School
Funding Norms and Standards according to a resource-targeting list. This list ensures that the most needy
schools receive more than those with minimal needs. Special schools are not included in this allocation and receive
their allocations via a different process.
The following is proposed for Special schools:
2.6.4.32.6.4.1An audit of the
programmes offered by existing special schools will be conducted. The audit will analyse (amongst others) the
effectiveness, costs, affordability, quality and viability of programmes. At the same time a scan of the costs of
similar / related programmes in other developing and developed countries will
be conducted. The results of these
investigations would enable the generation of 5 to 6 levels of programme costs
– from cheapest to most expensive. A
learner per-capita cost of these levels will enable a comparison with the
per-capita costs of ordinary public schools.
2.6.4.42.6.4.1Special schools
would then be ranked by the normal procedure in the resource targeting lists of
schools in each province by using the existing criteria.
2.6.4.52.6.4.1When the
non-personnel budget allocation of Special schools are determined by provinces
the amounts would be multiplied by the number of learners per school by its
respective weighting.
2.6.4.62.6.4.1Designated full
service schools would be resourced by the same procedure.
2.6.5 Post
Provisioning Strategy
2.6.5.1The current
resourcing strategy for Education targets an 85% - 15% split between personnel
and non-personnel costs by 2005 and an eventual 80% - 20% split. This strategy clearly acknowledges that the
chief resource for education delivery is Human (Educators). The optimum utilisation of human resources
is thus crucial, as they constitute more than 80% of the education budget.
2.6.5.22.6.5.1The objective of
the post provisioning strategy is to allocate posts in accordance with the
actual educational support needs of the learners concerned and not (as is
currently the case) on the basis of category of disability. The revised resourcing model would create a
dedicated pool of posts for the educational support system.
2.6.5.32.6.5.1The achievement of
this objective necessitates a revision of the current post establishment model,
possible customisation of the post distribution mechanism, the development of
guidelines for post utilisation, particular attention to optimising the
expertise of specialist support personnel (e.g. therapists, psychologists,
remedial educators, health professionals, etc), and structural and
organisational arrangements to ensure flexibility in the deployment of posts.
2.6.5.42.6.5.1The specialist
human resources that constitute the “Educational Support Services” would be
deployed to ensure the design, delivery and monitoring of the support
programmes / services necessary to address barriers to learning and
development.
2.6.6 Supply,
Utilisation And Development Of Educators
2.6.6.1It
is important to note that the supply, utilisation and development of educators
are impacted upon by various policies.
2.6.6.22.6.6.1Educator
supply is essentially governed by “affordability”. Each year the MEC for education in a province is legally obliged
to indicate the number of CS posts that that province will budget for. This number is influenced by the provinces
trajectory for achieving an 85% - 15% personnel costs / non-personnel costs
split by 2005. It is also impacted upon
by the CS / PS personnel split – the suggested target being 85% - 15%. Sound management and control of expenditure
in this area is imperative.
2.6.6.32.6.6.1Heads
of Departments are legally tasked with distributing the above CS posts amongst
the various institutions and offices that constitute the provincial
department. The distribution of the
posts (by legislation) is within the parameters of a post distribution formula
/ model. The formula / model is subject
to annual review.
2.6.7 Strategy For Supply Utilisation And Development Of Educators
2.6.7.1“Teaching
Posts” would be allocated to all schools in terms of the existing post
distribution model. (The revised
weightings will ensure that the number of these posts that are allocated to a
school reflects the actual educational needs of learners in terms of class size
projections.) In filling these posts
school management is obligated to ensure that the learners who “generated” the
posts are adequately catered for via appropriate and effective educational
programmes.
2.6.7.22.6.7.1A
pool of posts to provide support to schools will be created in terms of a
formula related to the differing levels of programme costs. These posts will be top-sliced from the
total pool of posts in a province before the post distribution model is
applied.
2.6.7.32.6.7.1These
posts together with those traditionally allocated to provincial ESS would thus
form a pool of specialists (with appropriate expertise and experience) for
deployment as resource persons that could provide direct interventionist programmes
to learners (in a range of settings), and / or serve as “consultant – mentors”
to school management teams, classroom teachers, school governing bodies
etc. They would thus be available to
inform and influence programmes for learners with disabilities as well as
programmes of a more systemic and systems focus.
2.6.7.42.6.7.1School
Management is obliged to ensure that any CS post/s generated by learners with
disabilities is / are utilised to develop, organise, control, manage and / or
implement support programmes to meet the needs of the learners who engendered
the creation of such posts. The
intensity, form, nature and duration of these support programmes must be in
alignment with National and Provincial policy related to an inclusive education
and training system, must be congruent with and embedded in the overall school
development plan and must be geared to ensure access to the curriculum and
optimum success of the learners.
2.6.7.52.6.7.1Institutions
and District offices are encouraged to utilise posts in a creative manner. The traditional allocation of an educator to
a class / subject on the basis of a uniform class size should be reviewed.
2.6.7.62.6.7.1
The ministry will set up a
workgroup of experts in meeting the educational needs of learners with
disabilities and impairments and experts in post provisioning and utilisation
to develop norms in respect of the above.
ESTABLISHING THE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION AND
TRAINING SYSTEM
3.1.14.1.1 Our
long-term goal is the development of an inclusive education and training system
that will uncover and address barriers to learning, and recognise and
accommodate the diverse range of learning needs.
3.1.24.1.2 This
long-term goal is part of our programme to build an open, lifelong and high
quality education and training system for the 21st Century.
3.1.34.1.3 The
inclusive education and training system shall include a range of different
institutions, including special schools/resource centres and designated full
service and other schools, public adult learning centres and further and higher
education institutions.
3.1.44.1.4 The
vision and goals that we have outlined in this White Paper reflect a
twenty-year developmental perspective.
34.2 Our
short-term to medium-term goals
3.2.14.2.1 Our
short-term to medium-term goals will focus immediately on addressing the
weaknesses and deficiencies of our current system and on expanding access and
provision to those of compulsory school-going age who are not accommodated
within the education and training system.
In this manner we shall begin to lay the foundations for the kind of
education and training system we wish to build over the next twenty years.
3.2.24.2.2 Below
we outline in more detail the strategic changes that we shall introduce over
the next eight years. These focus on
the revision of all policies, legislation and structures that are necessary to
facilitate the transformation process. This period will also include a public
awareness and advocacy campaign, the development of the appropriate and
necessary capacities and competencies at all levels of the system and the
rationalisation and efficient combination of limited resources. It will also include the development of
those mechanisms within the system that are central to increasing access, to accommodating
diversity and to addressing barriers to learning. This period will also see the development of the district and
learning institutional-based support system and the establishment of evaluation
and monitoring measures.
34.3 Strategic
areas of change
34.3.1 Building capacity in all
education departments
3.3.1.14.3.1.1 The
Department of Education and the nine provincial departments of education will
play a critical role, particularly over the next eight years, in laying the
foundations of the inclusive education and training system. This will require that we will have to
establish an effective management, policy, planning and monitoring capacity in
the Department of Education, under senior departmental leadership, to guide and
support the development of the inclusive education and training system.
3.3.1.24.3.1.2 Since
the provincial departments of education will play the key role in building
institutional capacity and in managing the introduction of the inclusive
education and training system, the Department of Education shall assist
provincial education departments to develop effective management systems and
capacity in respect of strategic planning, management information systems,
financial management and curriculum development and assessment.
3.3.1.34.3.1.3 As
provided for in the Constitution, the Minister of Education will, on the
principles of co-operative governance, determine national policy, norms and
standards for establishing the inclusive education and training system, and
will together with the nine Members of the Provincial Executive Councils responsible
for education oversee the laying of the foundations of the inclusive education
and training system.
34.3.2 Strengthening the capacities
of all advisory bodies
3.3.2.14.3.2.1 All
advisory bodies will play a critical role in providing advice to the Minister
of Education on the goals, priorities and targets for the establishment of the
inclusive education and training system.
3.3.2.24.3.2.2 Accordingly, the Ministry shall
review, and where appropriate strengthen the memberships of these advisory
bodies so that they can provide appropriate and timely advice on these matters.
4.3.2.3
The
memberships of provincial advisory bodies shall similarly be reviewed and where
appropriate,
strengthened.
34.3.3 Establishing district support
teams
3.3.3.14.3.3.1 In
collaboration with the provincial departments of education, we shall strengthen
the education support service that shall have at its centre new district-based
support teams. These teams shall
comprise of staff from provincial
district, regional and head offices and from special schools. Their primary function will be to evaluate
and, through supporting teaching, build the capacity of schools, early
childhood and adult basic education and training centres, colleges and higher
education institutions to recognise and address severe learning difficulties
and to accommodate a range of learning needs.
3.3.3.24.3.3.2 We
shall establish district support teams first in the thirty districts that form
part of the District Development Programme and, on the basis of lessons learnt,
consider expanding these to the remaining school districts.
34.3.4 Auditing, and improvinge
the quality of and converting
special schools to resource centres
3.3.4.14.3.4.1 In
collaboration with the provincial departments of education we shall complete a
quantitative and qualitative audit of the education
provision of all 380 public special schools and independent special schools
with thea view to improving the quality of
their services.
3.3.4.24.3.4.2 Also,
based on the outcomes of these audits, special schools shall be converted to
resource centres that shall have two primary responsibilities. First, the new resource centres shall
provide an improved educational service to its targeted learner population. Secondly they shall be integrated into
district support teams so that they can provide specialised professional
support in curriculum, assessment and instruction to designated full service
and other neighbourhood schools.
3.3.4.34.3.4.3 The
conversion of special schools to resource centres will necessitate their
upgrading and the training of their staff for the their
new roles as part of district support teams.
3.3.4.44.3.4.4 Conditions
of service and the post-provisioning model for educators shall be reviewed to
accommodate the approaches put forward in this White Paper – district support
teams, special schools/resource centres and full service educational
institutions – while retaining, as far as is possible the services of
specialist personnel.
3.3.5.14.3.5.1 In
collaboration with the provincial departments of education, and beginning in
the thirty districts that form part of the District Development Programme, we
shall identify and designate primary schools for conversion to full service
schools so that we can expand provision and access to disabled learners within
neighbourhood schools. Based on lessons
learnt, at least one primary school per district canwill be designated
as a full service school. Full service
schools will be provided with the necessary physical, material and human
resources and professional development of staff so that they can accommodate
the diverse range of learning needs.
4.3.5.2
In the
further education and training sector, the Ministry shall link the provision of education of learners with disabilities
stemming from impaired intellectual development and who do not require
intensive support to the general restructuring of
the further education and training sector currently being undertaken by the Ministry. It is likely that a similar model to that proposed for general
education will be developed for the colleges, namely that there will be
dedicated special colleges which will mirror the full service schools in the general
education sector.
4.3.5.3
In the higher
education sector, and as part of the National Plan for Higher Education, the Ministry will
require all higher education institutions to indicate in their
institutional plans the strategies, steps and time-frames they intend taking to
increase enrolment of learners with special education needs. The Ministry will undertake investigations
and make recommendations to
higher education institutions regarding minimum levels of provision
for learners with special needs.
However, all higher education institutions will be required to ensure
that there is appropriate physical access for all physically disabled
learners. At the level of education
provision, it will be fiscally possible to provide relatively expensive
equipment, particularly for blind and deaf students, only at some of the higher
education institutions. Such facilities
will have to be rationalised on a regional basis.
34.3.6 Establishing institutional
level support teams
34.3.6.1 At the institutional level, in general, and further and higher education, we shall assist
institutions to establish institution-level support teams. The primary function of these teams will be
to put in place properly co-ordinated learner and educator support services
that support the learning and teaching process by identifying and addressing
learner, educator and institutional needs. Where appropriate, institutions
should strengthen these teams by expertise from the local community, district
support teams and higher education institutions. District support teams will provide the full range of education
support services such as professional development in curriculum and assessment
to these institutional –level support teams.
3.3.7.14.3.7.1 In
collaboration with the provincial departments of education and the Ministries
of Health and Welfare, the Ministry shall investigate how learners that
experience severe barriers to learning during the pre-school years can be
identified and addressed. Mechanisms
and measures to be investigated will include the role of community-based
clinics and early admission of such learners to special schools/resource
centres and full service and other schools.
3.3.7.24.3.7.2 In
collaboration with the provincial departments of education the Ministry shall
investigate measures to raise the capacity of primary schools for the early
identification and support of learners who experience barriers to learning and
require learning support
3.3.8.14.3.8.1 We
shall require that all curriculum development, assessment and instructional
development programmes make special efforts to address the learning and
teaching requirements of the diverse range of learning needs and that address
barriers to learning that arise from language and the medium of learning and
instruction, teaching style and pace, time-frames for the completion of curricula,
learning support materials and equipment, and assessment methods and
techniques.
3.3.8.24.3.8.2 District
support teams and institution-level support teams will be required to provide
curriculum, assessment and instructional support in the form of illustrative
learning programmes, learner support materials and equipment, assessment
instruments and professional support for educators at special schools/resource
centres and full service and other educational institutions.
3.3.8.34.3.8.3 The
norms and standards for teacher education will be revised where appropriate to
include the development of competencies to recognise and address barriers to
learning and to accommodate the diverse range of learning needs.
3.3.8.44.3.8.4 The
eighty hours annual in-service education and training requirements of educators
by the Government will be structured in such a manner that they include the
requirement to complete courses relating to policies and programmes put forward
in this White Paper.
34.3.9 Promoting quality
assurance and quality improvement
34.3.9.1 The Ministry shall require that all
quality assurance bodies created for the education sector develop their
programmes of quality assurance taking into account the current and future
access and provision of educational services for learners with disabilities,
including how special schools/resource centres, full service and other
educational institutions can uncover and address barriers to learning.
34.3.10 Mobilising
public support
3.3.10.14.3.10.1 In collaboration with the provincial departments of
education, the Ministry will launch an information and advocacy campaign to
communicate the policy proposals contained in this White Paper, including the
rights, responsibilities and obligations attached to these.
3.3.10.24.3.10.2 The Ministry will also continue its discussions with all
national community-based organisations, NGOs, organisations of the disabled,
health professionals and other members of the public who will play a central
role in supporting the building of the inclusive education and training system.
3.3.10.34.3.10.3 At the educational
institutional level, partnerships shall be established with parents so that
they can, armed with information, counselling and skills, participate more
effectively in the planning and implementation of inclusion activities, and so
that they can play a more active role in the learning and teaching of their own
children, despite limitations due to disabilities or chronic illnesses.
4.3.11 HIV/AIDS
and other infectious diseases
4.3.11.1
The Ministry will, on an ongoing basis, analyse the effects of HIV/AIDS
and other infectious diseases on the education and training system.
4.3.11.2
The Ministry will develop and implement appropriate and timely
programmes, including strengthening our information systems, establishing a
system to identify orphans, co-ordinate support and care programmes for such
learners, put in place referral procedures for teachers, and develop teaching
guidelines on how to support orphans and other children in distress.
4.3.11.3
In this regard, the Ministry will work closely with provincial
departments of education and the Departments of Social Development, Health and
the Public Service Administration.
3.3.11.1The
ministry will set up a workgroup of experts in meeting the educational needs of
learners with disabilities and impairments and experts in post provisioning and
utilisation to develop norms in respect of the above.
3.3.11.2Consultation
with the unions in the ELRC will be initiated to address any implications for
conditions of service of educators.
3.3.11.3The
post provisioning and non-personnel funding models will be trailed in
designated special, full-service and ordinary schools.
3.3.11.4In
addition to trailing, scenario planning and virtual reality techniques will be
used to gauge the impact on the system prior to full-scale implementation.
4.4.12.1
The funding
strategy that is proposed in this White Paper is a realistic one that takes
into account the country’s fiscal capacity. The important features of this strategy are its
emphasis on cost-effectiveness and exploiting the economies of scale that
result from expanding access and provision within an inclusive education and
training system.
4.4.12.2
For the short- to
medium term (that is, the first eight years) a three-pronged approach to funding is
proposed with new conditional grants from the national government, funding from
the line budgets of provincial education departments and donor funds,
constituting the chief sources of funding.
4.4.12.3
Further investigation will be undertaken by the Ministry regarding the
magnitude of these expenditures and how they can be phased in over the eight
year period.
Annexure A
RESPONSE TO SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO
CONSULTATION PAPER NO 1: SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION – BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE
EUDCATION AND TRAINING SYSTEM
Premature
implementation of policy recommendations
Terminology
q
Is about
acknowledging that all children and youth can learn and that all children and
youth need support.
q
Is about
enabling education structures, systems and learning methodologies to meet the
needs of all learners.
q
Acknowledges
and respects differences in learners, whether due to age, gender, ethnicity,
language, class, disability, HIV status, etc.
q
Is broader
than formal schooling and acknowledges that learning also occurs in the home
and community, and within formal and informal manners.
q
Is about
changing attitudes, behaviour, methodologies, curricula and environments to
meet the needs of all learners.
q
Is about
maximising the participation of all learners in the culture and the curriculum
of educational institutions and uncovering and minimising barriers to learning.
q
“Full
service” schools should be designated in each district for the implementation
of the inclusion model, especially since it is unimaginable how all 29,000
public schools could all provide the full range of physical and material
resources required – e.g. Braille writers, voice synthesisers, hearing aids and
adapted information and communications technologies - and the staff to
accommodate the full range of diverse learning needs.
q
Learners who
require education support through for example the tailoring of curriculum,
instruction and assessment should be identified early, and for this purpose the
Foundation Phase (Grades R-3) should be prioritised.
q
Since
learners are more independent after the Foundation Phase, implementation of the
inclusion model or mainstreaming of learners should begin after Grade 3.
q
Special
schools and settings should be converted to resource centres that provide
specialised professional support in curriculum, assessment and instruction to
neighbourhood schools in addition to serving its own expanding learner base.
q
For the
inclusive model to work, designated posts should be created in all schools for
the development and co-ordination of school-based support for all educators.
q
Instead of
rhetorically stating that the new outcomes-based curriculum accommodates all
learners within a single learning programme, district-based support teams
should provide curriculum, assessment and instruction support in the form of
illustrative learning programmes, learning support materials and assessment
instruments to special schools and specialised settings.
q
The needs of
parents of disabled learners or learners at risk should be taken into account
and they should be provided with information, counselling and skills to support
their children.