Pretoria - Education Minister Angie Motshekga has thrown her weight behind SA National Association for Specialised Education's (SANASE) appeal to parents and communities to help protect and promote the best interest of the child.
"Our first priority is the future and wellbeing of the learners," Motshekga said at the SANASE Annual General Meeting held in Cape Town.
Motshekga noted that government has adopted progressive policies and has taken far-reaching steps to protect the fundamental rights of children, including children living with disabilities. These include the White Paper 6, Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System, which was gazetted by the department in July 2001.
The White Paper has provided strategies for developing an inclusive system and for increasing access to quality education for children experiencing barriers to learning.
Among the government's interventions in assisting learners with special needs include appropriate assistive devices, which have been distributed to hundreds of children and enabling them to access education and become better integrated into society.
In many cases, children who had been carried by their parents and could not attend school now have fitted wheelchairs that make them mobile and also provide postural support.
"The department has also established a Curriculum Management Team for the development of the South African Sign Language curriculum as a subject, the curriculum is being developed for implementation in 2012.
"A positive result of government interventions, working with organs of civil society and Corporate South Africa, is that access for children experiencing barriers to learning has been notably increased," Motshekga said.
Far-reaching progress has also been made in screening and assessment practices which should radically change the way in which learners are assessed from an early age with a view to early intervention and provision of appropriate support.
