POLITICS

Gauteng DoE cuts posts for special needs schools - FEDSAS

Schools affected accommodate learners with hearing and physical disabilities, epilepsy and cerebral palsy

Gauteng Education Department discriminates against special schools, says FEDSAS

The Gauteng Education Department discriminates against learners with special education needs. This is the only conclusion one can come to regarding this department's post provision scales for 2013 that were released recently.

"According to these scales, schools for learners with special education needs will lose quite a number of posts. Some of these schools are now forced to close schools hostels because there are simply not enough staff members to keep the hostels in operation. Many of these schools accommodate learners for all over South Africa, which makes hostels a necessity," says Mrs Melanie Buys, the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African's Schools' (FEDSAS) provincial manager in Gauteng.

Buys says these schools accommodate learners with hearing disabilities, those living with epilepsy, as well as cerebral palsy and physical disabilities. "Many of these learners need full-time care. If the department does not provide more posts urgently, including posts for therapists, these learners will not be able to receive the necessary special education." Provision for posts for normal public schools is awarded on a scale of 1:33. For special schools the provision for posts for 2013 is effectively 1:44 if the weights awarded in terms of disability are taken into account.

According to Buys some of these schools are forced to ask parents to pay for additional posts so that each classroom has at least one teacher. "Some of these schools are literally the only institutions that make use of certain education methods. These children have nowhere else to go for quality education," she says.

"For years FEDSAS has been fighting for better post provision for special schools," says Dr Jaco Deacon, deputy CEO of the organisation. "And for years we had to hear that the situation is under investigation when we ask for feedback regarding standards for the sector. This extremely vulnerable group of learners falls through the cracks - despite the fact that they have the same right to quality education as the rest of the children in our country."

In 2011, FEDSAS and other role-players were included in a task team set up by the Gauteng Education Department with the aim of investigating a workable model for post provision to special schools. However, nothing came of this exercise.

"Everything possible was done to resolve this matter through discussion and negotiation, but there is absolutely no progress. The group of schools, including Nuwe Hoop, Transvalia, Pretoria School, Gateway School, Trans Oranje and Sonitus, is drafting a letter to the Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga, to ask for assistance in awarding post as well as to determine Norms and Standards for special schools," says Buys.

FEDSAS has indicated that legal action is now considered as a last resort. "We are now at the stage where legal action is the only option remaining to force the Gauteng Education Department to provide additional posts, and to see to it that this matter is laid to rest once and for all," says Deacon.

(FEDSAS is a voluntary association of school governing bodies of public schools and supports quality education in these schools. Some 1460 public schools are already members of FEDSAS).

Statement issued by Dr Jaco Deacon, Deputy CEO: FEDSAS, and Mrs Melanie Buys, FEDSAS Provincial Manager: Gauteng, November 18 2012

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