Pretoria - The Department of Basic Education (DBE) on Tuesday told the Portfolio Committee on Education that it is progressing well with regard to the Curriculum Advancement Policy Statement (CAPS) for the South African Sign Language (SASL).
The department told the Committee that 24 Home Languages subject advisors were orientated into CAPS for Sign Language, and 2 277 learners are now receiving lessons in CAPS for SASL at Foundation Phase level, while it is also taught to 353 grade 9 learners across provinces.
The department was briefing the Committee on progress on Inclusive Education and Rural Education, the work done up to date and challenges that are being faced by the department.
The department also reported on progress made regarding the establishment of a Rural Education directorate, support to Multi-Grade schools and the implications on the department.
Reporting to the Portfolio Committee on the day, Inclusive Education Director at the department, Dr Moses Simelane, said intellectual disability in its various forms constitutes the majority of Special Needs Education learners in the system.
He said visually impairment counts among the lowest statistically, yet it receives the most attention. This, he said, was because visual impairment requires a lot of adaptation of materials to enhance accessibility to information.
“For visual impairment, the DBE has adapted workbooks into Braille and distributed to all schools for the visually impaired, covering grades 1 to 6,” the department said.
Rural Education Director Dr Phumzile Langa told the committee that the Rural Education Directorate is in the process of establishing an Inter-Provincial Rural Education Committee (IPREC).
“The main purpose of establishing IPREC is to create a forum for the DBE and Provincial Education Departments (PEDs), as well as relevant stakeholders to collaborate in identifying, developing and implementing the context-specific and sustainable strategies for rural school improvement,” said Langa.
The department said the Rural Education Directorate will conduct audits and produce reports on rural school teachers, schools providing scholar transport, rural education structures and stakeholder bodies at national and provincial levels, national and provincial programmes currently being implemented to improve the quality of education in rural schools, programmes aimed at teacher development in rural schools, and Information Communication Technology (ICT) infra-structure and ICT skills for rural school teachers.
The department said more would be done to work with provinces to ensure that implementation of policies takes place.
Portfolio Committee Chairperson Nomalungela Gina said education is a complex and societal issue, and highlighted the issue of learners with special needs completing school but having no indication of the impact that the department made.
She said no information was given on what happened to these learners after they completed school. Gina also called for the speedy implementation of the Skills Vocational Certificate for learners with special needs to provide them with exit level certification.
Gina commended the department for placing both inclusive education and rural schooling firmly back on the agenda.
“This was formerly the stepchildren of education but we can see that focus is now given to these issues. We commend this move as it will open the doors of education for more learners as well as level the playing field,” said Gina. - SAnews.gov.za
