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The human rights watch (HRW) has recently revealed in a report that an estimated 500,000 children with disabilities are not enrolled for primary education in the primary schools in South Africa. It has pointed that the lack of children’s education – one of the most essential and initial human requirements – is still not present in the African continent’s most improved and advancing country.
The real picture
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Some of the countries in the continent are hopeful regarding the matter of Millennium Development Goal (MDG). The countries ascribe a positive inclination towards fulfilling this as they say that the MDG will be met by hose countries to grant the access to primary education.
But it is something different when it comes to reality. The report says “Although the government claims it has achieved the MDG of enrolling all children in primary schools by 2015, HRW found that in reality, across South Africa, many children with disabilities are not in school,”
Another problem
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It is also assumed that the country will not be able to meet even the second MDG that targets universal primary education by 2015. The reason of this is the poor rate of development in the sub-saharan areas of the continent.
Hannah Kuper, co-director of the International Centre for Evidence in Disability at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says “Many, if not most, of disabled children are not enrolled in schools in developing countries,”
The UN vs. HRW
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A controversial point has been found between the UN and the HRW. South Africa’s activities in improving the access to children’s education was much praised in 2007. It was the first country to gain the ratification of the UN’s disability rights convention. In 2001 it also revealed policies to end the exclusion of disabled children from schools.
South Africa’s minister for basic education, Angie Motshekga, said in the month of May that the country had met the MDG.
The UN said regarding this matter, “South Africa has in effect achieved the goal of universal primary education before the year 2015, and its education system can now be recognised as having attained near universal access.”
On the contrary the HRW uncovered that the country exhibits a great range of discrimination regarding disabilities when it comes to the enrolment of students.
Elin MartÃnez, HRW’s children’s rights researcher, said “The South African government needs to admit that it is not providing quality education to all of its children – in fact, no schooling at all to many who have disabilities.”
The proof
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Qinisela, a South African mother of an eight-year old boy who has Down’s syndrome, residing in Kwa-Ngwanase, KwaZulu-Natal, has told the researchers of the HRW
“We tried to put him in a [mainstream] school but they said they couldn’t put him in that school because he has disabilities... because of Down’s syndrome he isn’t like other children so they [said they] can’t teach him. At the therapy, they promised to phone if there’s a space in a special school. I’ve been waiting since last year.”Other guardians and parents were interviewed the HRW from places like KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Northern Cape, Western Cape provinces and Gauteng.
Reality of the schools
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Again the HRW also witnessed various indisciplined activities in the schools. They saw violence, abuse, negligence and even discrimination of disabled child in terms fees of the schools.
Let’s improve impartially
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Difficulties and hostile forces like disabilities in children is a very dominant factor even in the most developed countries in the world. But treating it with less importance and neglecting it can never lead to a brighter future. To get an improved and modernised society, the countries facing these problems must cooperate to improve from these situations instead of avoiding them.
Source: goo.gl/TAAHkq
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