Pushing the "problems" underground? Left behind learners in South Africa

According to the first post-apartheid national Census in 1996, 8.5% of South African children between the ages of 7 and 15 were not in school while approximately 16% of learners in Grades 1 to 7 were out of age (in school but older than their grade cohort by at least three years). From an educational point of view, these two groups of learners represent important lenses for marginality – children, who for whatever reasons, are unable to keep average pace with basic schooling.

In 1998, a consortium of research organisations sought to better understand the life stories of out of school (OS) children (children who drop out of or have never attended school) and primary school based out of age (OA) learners. These included the Education policy Unit and Centre for Health Policy at the University of Witwatersrand, Kathorus Enhanced Learning Institute and Clacherty & Associates. Over a year, 200 life stories were documented from repeated conversations and participatory workshops with children and their primary caretakers from informal settlements and hostel complexes surrounding the Johannesburg area. The research established the primary, secondary, and supplementary ‘causes’ underlying each child’s pathway away from consistent participation in basic education.The six primary causes which emerged were:

Poverty - a combination of inability to afford costs of going to school, inability to ask for help from other family and community members and feeling unable to overcome material obstacles.

• Family – household structure, support and stability which could be affected by such stresses as illness, death, tension and violence.
• Mobility – high residential mobility levels due to unstable access to housing result in children moving during the school year and is related to lack of documentation required for school re-entry.
• School – barriers include school fee and uniform policies, lack of space in local schools, language policies, corporal punishment and humiliation.
• Individual - problems identified by the children and specific to themselves such as barriers (hearing, seeing, cognitive), health, pregnancy or ‘lack of interest’.
• Community violence - The communities studied suffered extreme political violence in the early 1990s and its destabilising effects on schooling were identified by OA learners (on average older than the OS children).

These results demonstrate the perceptions of OS children, OA learners and their caregivers. It is striking that relatively few blame the lack of educational stability on the school system, which largely reflects low expectations of schools to cater to the socio-economic challenges of learners.

An alternative analysis, however, would view these categories as areas where the school system is currently not catering well to all of South Africa’s children either their socio-economic situations (poverty, household and residential instability, and violence) or individual differences (learning differences, health problems, personalities). For example, rather than poverty being the primary reason why children are out of school, it could be argued that the school system is failing to meet the needs of children facing the challenges associated with deep poverty.

The post apartheid policy process addressing what was traditionally referred to as ‘special needs’ education lies within the emerging inclusive education debate and reflects two important shifts. First, when considering deficit, the focus has moved from the child to an analysis of school capability – how successfully it accommodates children and their differences. Second, the simple distinction of ‘special needs’ has expanded beyond traditional notions of ‘disability’ to encompass challenges created by social, economic and linguistic differences.

South Africa’s Department for Education policy for ‘special education’ embraces these two shifts, at least at the level of definitions. In practice, however, the strategies which have arguably had the most impact on OA learners have not come from these expanded notions. These policy tools have come from educational economists who, under pressure to decrease educational expenditure and view OA learners as systemic inefficiencies, recommended that schools:

• no longer allow a child to repeat more than once per three-grade cycle
• apply more rigid age to grade norms as admission criteria; learners who are over 3 years older their age cohort are encouraged to participate in, largely non-existent, facilities of ‘adult basic education’.

Instead of addressing the educational problems experienced by OA learners, these policies push the symptoms of the problems underground.

An inclusive school is one that is able to successfully navigate a confident educational pathway for children facing different socio-economic challenges beyond the school gates. But affirmation of an expanded notion of inclusion in policy definitions is not enough. Based on South Africa’s experiences it is clear that efforts catering to children with diverse learning requirements will not be successful without:

• diverting the necessary financial or human resources to support new strategies
• considering the quality enhancements required to provide learners with a more stable pathway, rather than initiatives such as age-grade norms and repetition policies.

 

Source(s):
'Vuk’uyithathe: Lives and Circumstances of Out of School and Out of Age Children in Kathorus',  Gauteng Department of Education, Johannesburg, by K. Porteus, G. Clacherty, L. Mdiya, J. Pelo, et al. 2000 >
'Education White Paper 6. Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System', Department of Education, Pretoria: Government Printer, 2001

id21 Research Highlight: 12 September, 2003

Further Information:
Kimberley Porteus
Education Policy Unit
University of the Witwatersrand
Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050
Johannesburg
South Africa

Tel: +27 11 497 1874
Fax: +27 82 806 6528
Contact the contributor: porteusk@epu.wits.ac.za

University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Other related links:
See the id21 links page on inclusive education

'Class struggles: the challenges of achieving schooling for all', Insights Education #2

'Education for all? The challenges of inclusive education'