Browsing by Subject "Department of Basic Education"

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    Access to quality education for children with severe to profound intellectual disabilities: examining barriers amid the COVID-19 pandemic and exploring the support of the Department of Basic Education in special care centres in Cape Town
    (2023) Tukwayo, Pearl; McKenzie, Judith
    The exclusion of children with Severe to Profound Intellectual Disability (SPID) from the education system has been a challenge as they have been previously deemed as” ineducable” or “untrainable” and consequently neglected by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in South Africa regarding the provision of resources to the caregivers who provide education to the children. The purpose of the study was to investigate the experiences of the support staff in Special Care Centre (SCCs) on the support that is currently being received from the DBE and stakeholders. This will be achieved by determining barriers to accessing quality education in an inclusive education system and exploring viable solutions to these barriers amid the COVID19 pandemic. The methodology that was employed was a qualitative research method to explore the experiences of the participants. The human rights of children with SPID was an important factor of this study, the theoretical framework that was employed was an ecological systems theory. Where necessary, the interview questions were simplified in isiXhosa for the participants who were struggling to grasp some concepts. The cohort of participants included one centre manager, one assistant caregiver, and six caregivers. The participants were identified in SCCs in the Western Cape in different communities namely, Langa, Gugulethu, and Maitland. I chose participants using purposive sampling as it was vital to choose the participants who possessed the ability to respond to the research questions. Ethical clearance was provided by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Cape Town (HREC 013/2021sa). Informed consent was obtained from all the participants before the interviews were conducted. Semi-structured interviews were recorded on a mobile device and hand notes were taken throughout. Data was collected in isiXhosa and later transcribed into English and an inductive analysis was completed manually. The investigation on the experiences of the support staff in special care centres has found that although the support staff require high levels of support to advance quality education for children with SPID in an inclusive education, the support that they are currently receiving has been found to be inadequate. The children are still receiving education in a segregated setting using different curricula and the caregivers are not provided with adequate specialised training. The study recommends effective implementation of Inclusive Education in SCCs so that SCCs can be part of the DBE where children with SPID will follow the same curriculum as children who do not have disabilities, but which can be adapted, be taught by adequately equipped caregivers, have an opportunity to attend fully inclusive schools, and the provision of specialised training for caregivers to equip them with greater knowledge on the theoretical perspective of caring for children with SPID.