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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 (see Figure 1 below).
Figure 1 - click to enlarge
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.
Kimberley Porteus
Education Policy Unit
University of the Witwatersrand
Private Bag 3
Wits 2050
Johannesburg
South Africa
T: 27.11.497.1874
F: 27.82.806.6528
porteusk@epu.wits.ac.za
See also:
'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
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