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Families of children with disabilities struggle with limited educational options amid systemic failures

Families of children with disabilities struggle with limited educational options amid systemic failures
Takudzwa Pongweni
By Takudzwa Pongweni
28 Mar 2025
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For parents like Jacquline Frew, securing an appropriate education for children with disabilities is a constant battle, marked by long waiting lists, inadequate placements, and bureaucratic roadblocks. With the education system already grappling with budget cuts, recent revelations about critical vacancies left unfilled could exacerbate the issues.

For many parents of children with disabilities, navigating the educational system is a constant battle, one that can feel like an endless loop of red tape, bureaucratic obstacles, and unfulfilled promises.This is evident in the struggles faced by families like Jacquline Frew’s, whose 17-year-old son with cerebral palsy has encountered constant barriers in accessing suitable education. Her experience highlights the lack of available and appropriate school placements, transportation issues, and the cumbersome administrative processes involved.

“We live in the Vaal, and at one point, the only school we had access to was in Joburg South. The issue was there was no transport available, so I had to quit my job just to take him back and forth to school,” Frew told Daily Maverick.

Frew’s son was placed on a waiting list, but he has been on the waiting list for more than a year. He does not fit into the mainstream school system due to his disability, but he also doesn’t qualify for placement in a special needs school, as his academic abilities are too advanced.

She expressed a desire for her son, who is able to read and write, to learn practical skills like woodwork or metalwork. 

“Right now, he has nowhere to go. I just want him to have some practical skills but the schools that provide woodwork and such can’t accept him,” Frew lamented.

In the meantime, she does what she can to keep him engaged at home, working on activities like reading, worksheets, and a small vegetable garden.

“I wish I could teach him more technical skills, but I can’t, so I just try to keep him busy. I also have him working on a small vegetable garden here at home,” she said. 

A nationwide staffing crisis


Unfortunately, Frew’s  experience is not unique. Across the country, countless families of children with special needs are faced with the same challenges — long waiting lists, limited school placements, and no clear path forward.

Behind these personal stories is a much larger, systemic issue. According to a recent parliamentary response to a question posed to the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Mzamo Buthelezi, South Africa’s public service is facing a severe shortage of qualified staff, with more than 102,000 funded positions remaining unfilled. The education sector, in particular, is struggling, with key vacancies going unfilled, leaving many schools understaffed and under-resourced. 

The consequences of these vacancies are particularly acute in the realm of special needs education, which was already facing the challenges of inadequate funding, insufficient support and critical gaps in specialised roles. 

In a research brief, the South African Human Rights Commission highlighted significant staffing challenges in special needs schools, including difficulties in recruitment and insufficient staff numbers. Newly recruited staff often lack the necessary training to work with learners with special needs, placing a financial strain on the schools for training. 

Furthermore, special needs schools are often severely understaffed, especially in hostels, sometimes leaving a single staff member responsible for a large number of learners. The absence of trained medical assistants on site also poses a serious risk. Critically, the brief also pointed out that when teaching staff members leave, they are seldom replaced by the provincial Department of Basic Education due to a stated lack of funding, forcing schools to operate with essential staff vacancies. 

As of the end of January, the Northern Cape Education Department had the highest vacancy rate at 16.6%, followed by the Eastern Cape at 12% and the Western Cape at 10.9%. Other provinces also reported significant vacancy rates, including Limpopo (10%), North West (9.4%), Mpumalanga (7.5%), KwaZulu-Natal (6.4%), Gauteng (5.87%), and the Free State (1.9%). At the national level, the education departments faced a vacancy rate of 7.15%.

Daily Maverick sent questions to the Department of Basic Education for specific figures regarding vacancies in special needs schools, but at the time of publication, no response had been received.

The current state of special needs education


The 2001 White Paper on Inclusive Education recognises disability as a factor that hinders learning and participation in schools, and emphasised the need to provide learners with disabilities or difficulties with the necessary support within their local schools, wherever possible. The core principle of inclusive education is to remove barriers to participation for children by addressing physical environments, teaching practices, and the attitudes of teachers and peers.

Despite the progressive intentions of the 2001 White Paper and subsequent inclusive education policies, implementation has been slow. 

A 2015 report by Human Rights Watch highlighted the gap between the country’s progress on paper for children with disabilities and the reality they face. The report revealed that more than half a million children with disabilities remained out of school, and many others received substandard education. Key challenges identified included discrimination in school admissions, a lack of reasonable accommodations, excessive fees, and violence against children with disabilities. 

The Centre for Child Law in July 2023 highlighted that despite a framework involving ordinary public schools, full-service schools, and special schools overseen by the Department of Basic Education, an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 children with disabilities remained out of school. 

Frew said she had received little to no support from the Department of Education.  

“When I reach out to them asking what I should do, they don’t have answers. It’s incredibly frustrating. You’re constantly hitting walls, and no one can help. You have to keep following up through emails and WhatsApps because they don’t respond,” she said.

While private schooling options are available, they are simply too expensive for many families. 

“I can’t afford R5,000 a month to send him to a private facility. There are these fancy, well-equipped schools, but they’re out of reach for us. We’re a single-income family, and I need to be at home with my kids. The grant money we receive gets used up so quickly,” she said.

Educators with disabilities face their own battle


Educators themselves also face significant challenges, as Eugene Matshwane, a visually impaired teacher from the Free State and chairperson of the Visually Impaired Educators Forum, told Daily Maverick. He said that while some schools provided crucial support like teacher assistants, this was not consistent across provinces and often depended on the school’s financial capacity. 

“It really depends on what the school can afford. You can’t rely on it being a stable arrangement because if the assistant gets a better offer, they’ll leave, which can disrupt your work,” he said.

Matshwane also said there were concerns about the system’s willingness to retain and support educators with disabilities. 

“We’ve heard of cases, like one from the Eastern Cape, where a teacher had to rely on family members to help with marking and preparing lessons. These are the kinds of challenges faced by teachers in our community. Special needs education requires support staff because our learners are so diverse, and you need people who can help address those unique needs,” he said. 

In addition to support for teachers, Matshwane emphasised a broader issue within the education system. 

“Our theme is that blindness is not an illness,” he said. “You’d think that teaching blind students would be impossible, but many of them aspire to become educators themselves. If we keep removing teachers from the system simply because they’re blind, and fail to recognise that they can be retrained to work in any educational space — whether in mainstream or special schools — we’re missing out. We have members in both mainstream and special schools, and, as I said, the support provided to these educators varies greatly. In some cases, there is support; in others, there is none,” he said. 

Looking ahead, Frew believes that more special needs schools are desperately needed. 

“Having more schools would be a huge step forward. The focus should be on getting these kids into school. I’m sure there are many kids out there who aren’t in school because of this issue, especially in rural areas. Every child has a right to education, regardless of how disabled they are. They need to feel like they belong somewhere, that they have a purpose in our communities,” she said. DM

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