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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo has written to Limpopo Director General, Nape Nchabeleng, over the terrible conditions at special schools in the province and on an update on the progress made in fulfilling commitments made in the 2018 report on the state of special schools in the province.

This follows oversight inspections in the last week to Ratanang Special School, Fulufhelo special school, Botlokwa special school, Mahlasedi special school and Tsoga o iterele Special School that revealed the under-resourced and inapropriate conditions special learners are being exposed to. See photos here, here, here, here and here. All the schools visited still had vacant posts dating back to 2018 and special schools continue to not have scholar transport.

Premier Stan Mathabatha and his executive carried out back to school visits to assess school readiness at the start of the academic year, but sidelined special schools by neglecting to visit them.

Ratanang Special School has no proper kitchen to prepare meals. A classroom has been turned into a makeshift kitchen. The school is also understaffed. There are 19 teachers but only 3 teaching assistants, and the only nurse is employed by the School Governing Body (SGB). The industrial laundry machine has gone without maintenance and no longer works. There is also an urgent need for new mobile classes.

Fulufhelo Special School, which is well run, does not have enough space for all of its learners. It currently uses storage rooms as classrooms and indicated the need for at least 5 mobile classes to adequately accommodate all the learners.  They also make use of a makeshift dining room. There is no sickbay and the artisan has had to be employed by the SGB.

Botlokwa Special School has a makeshift kitchen and is so understaffed that most of the support staff are volunteers. The school also has to teach two subjects in one classroom due to a lack of classrooms and needs 6 mobile classrooms as well as more mobile rooms for other facilities.

The school also urgently needs palisade fencing, it caters for severely intellectually impaired students and there has already been a case of a learner escaping the school premises unnoticed.

Mahlasedi Special School has dilapidated mobile classes for their Agriculture learners and further needs mobile classrooms to allow it to offer boarding facilities. Learners are said to be forced to board in private accommodation around the school and this has resulted in allegations of sexual abuse.  Tsoga o iterele Special School has a makeshift laundry room for learners.

In the 2018 report on the status of public special schools in Limpopo, the Limpopo Department of Education (LDoE) undertook to fill critical vacant posts in the 2018/19 financial year as part of its interventions and this remains unfulfilled. This is just another example of Education MEC, Polly Boshielo's, failure to provide quality education for learners in the province.

The DA’s continued oversight visits prove that the report on special schools to address the challenges was never taken seriously by the office of the Premier and LDoE. We remain committed to ensuring special learners receive a dignified quality education.

Issued by DA Limpopo Spokesperson on Quality of Life & Status of Women, Youth and Disability, Katlego Suzan Phala MPL