As the country starts the Disability Rights Awareness Month, thousands of children living with different kinds of disabilities in the Eastern Cape are still struggling with getting school placements.
The province has a mere 46 schools spread across its six districts to cater for learners with special needs.
Most of these are in urban districts, leaving rural districts like the Chris Hani District at a disadvantage. 45-year-old Silulami Bathembu from Komani has been struggling to find a school for his 12-year-old daughter who has a mental disability.
Bathembu explains his ordeal: “This is painful. The thought of having my daughter looking for a school for seven years is unbearable. She is about to turn 13 and has never been to school. I lost my job as a civil servant thinking I’ll be helped to find a school but to no avail…”
Education Department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima says the province does not have sufficient schools to cater for children with different types of disabilities.
“We are trying to ensure that each and every district does have a special school because, currently, one of the problems is that you are having for instance majority of these schools congested in one area. We want to make sure that we don’t have a child moving from Lusikisiki to PE, we want to make sure that each and every district have one.”
