Time to get these children back into the classroom

News that there are more than 4,000 children with special needs in the Eastern Cape sitting at home instead of being at school is beyond astonishing. What is even more shocking is that senior officials in the province, like department of education social support services chief director Sharon Maasdorp, who is responsible for special schools, don’t know this.

Maasdorp, who is paid over R1m a year to give support and monitor special needs schools, among other responsibilities, disputed the figures when they were revealed by the national department of social development’s chief director of persons with disabilities, Lidia Pretorius, at an education indaba in East London on Wednesday.

Disputing these statistics without providing alternative evidence indicating a different number of children with special needs sitting at home, does not help Maasdorp’s case.

To reject Pretorius’s statistics by saying she did not know where Pretorius obtained them paints a picture of a top government official sleeping on her job. The department of basic education in 2017 said the number of children with special needs sitting at home was 11,000 in the country and 2,160 in this province.

Education MEC Mlungisi Mvoko was honest enough to say he was not aware of the statistics as he has only been in the job for four months. But now that he is aware, he must show political leadership and ensure that the children, many of whom are marginalised because of their physical and intellectual challenges, are not left behind.

Starting by promising to turn 10 unused public schools into high schools for pupils with learning challenges, while also ensuring that each and every school in the province is accessible to disabled pupils by constructing ramps, wheelchair-friendly toilets and providing material like Braille for blind pupils, is a step in the right direction.

But this must not be just talk, an inclusive education system is long overdue. The department of education cannot afford to fail disabled children any more. If Mvoko is serious about his inclusive education plan, he has to ensure officials are held to account. They must shape up or ship out, or the long overdue plan of ensuring children with disabilities are treated as well as their able-bodied counterparts, will not be realised.

If Mvoko is serious about his inclusive education plan, he has to ensure that officials are held to account