Parents fume over neglect of disabled children

by Niels Posthumus

The human rights of disabled children in South Africa are being violated everyday - and parents and schools involved have now had enough.

The children are being denied the right of equality, the right to human dignity, the right to education and the right to be protected from abuse and neglect, claims the group Parents of Children with Special Educational Needs (Pacsen) and some of the schools which cater for them.

In June last year, Forest Town School in Johannesburg filed an official complaint at the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) on behalf of a number of schools in Gauteng.

"Over recent years the Education Department has chipped away at posts for general assistants, caregivers, teachers and therapists in schools for special-needs children," says Carol Brown, who is responsible for the caregivers programme at Forest Town.

"Those people wash and feed the children; they put them in and out of their wheelchairs.

"As a result of these posts being cut, it has become impossible for us to assist the children in the way we should," she says.

In many cases failure to sufficiently assist disabled schoolchildren with, for example, taking them to the toilet, results in their loss of human dignity, says Brown.

The problem has become so serious that Brown is speaking out despite an instruction not to speak to the media given by MEC for education Angie Motshekga to all Gauteng schools in a letter on May 11 2006.

Most principals are more cautious, fearing they might be penalised if they speak out.

However, off the record, they support the claims of Forest Town and are worried they may be under further pressure after next month when subsidies are announced.

Jody Kollapen, chairman of the SAHRC, said they were in discussions with the Gauteng department of education.

He said it was not that government was not concerned; the problem rather was the lack of norms and standards with respect to the assistance of, and care for disabled children, something which was still being determined.

"We will meet delegates from the Department of Education this week. We want to explore all other ways to solve this problem first," he says.

"But if the determining process still takes longer than half a year, we will insist on interim measures at least, making it possible for schools to apply for extra financial resources."

Jennie Hoff, the chief executive of Pacsen, said changing the laws in respect to disabled children is time-consuming.

"It's a complex process," she admits. "The whole schooling infrastructure has to be changed. After 1994 the number of students in schools for special needs children has grown very fast. In Gauteng alone there are now 35 000 children that need special education."

"The whole system has to be rebuilt," she says. "Schools for special needs children have to be converted into regional service centres that support other schools in its surroundings dealing with disabled children too."

"But every province is implementing this policy at its own speed. Gauteng is behind schedule. And it is the children that are suffering."