Basic Education Director-General, Mr Mathanzima Mweli, accompanied by senior management members, briefed the Select Committee on Education, Sciences and Creative Industries on 29 July 2025. The briefing focused on the implementation of inclusive education from Early Childhood Development (ECD) level, including the training provided to educators on dealing with learners living with disabilities.
DBE’s Deputy Director-General for Curriculum Policy, Support and Monitoring, Dr Barney Mthembu said that, “we are heeding advice from oversight structures and our DG to embrace the mantra of inclusivity across the board. For this reason, our presentation includes policy; admission; teacher training; financing; learner transport; infrastructure; ICT and connectivity; and co-curricular activities affecting learners with disabilities for every province, district and circuit to embrace inclusivity for no child to be left behind”.
DG Mweli explained that, “learners living with disabilities must attend public ordinary schools as we have made them assessable for those in wheelchairs and with other minor disabilities. Only learners with severe disabilities must be referred to institutions that cater for learners with disabilities as indicated in Education White Paper 6. We have been making progress through the Multi-disciplinary National Task Team (NTT), established in May 2023, to facilitate the placement of out-of-school learners with disabilities from special care centres into schools and training”.
Ms Cheryl Weston, Acting Chief Director for Curriculum Implementation and Monitoring and Mr Jabulani Ngcobo, Director for Inclusive Education, delivered the presentation, saying that Provincial Task Teams (PTT) have already been established and trained to monitor and report on the placement of out-of-school children. The Ministerial Task Team, established in January 2023, to review Education White Paper 6, produced an interim report, which was submitted to the Minister on 20 May 2024. However, the Minister has extended its period and the final report must be submitted in February 2026. In respect of access, a total of 67,104 learners with disabilities have already been placed in 22,880 schools.
In 2019, the sector took a decision to focus on the Implementation of the Policy on Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS) in the Foundation Phase to focus the sector on the importance of early identification, prevention and intervention, especially for children in ECD from 14 weeks to 5 years to enable tracking of literacy and numeracy progress and communication and numeracy milestones. A tool has been developed for detecting developmental delays and is currently being field tested along with the Department of Health (DoH), Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and Cotlands. The screening tool was also shared with the Takalani Sesami Workshop for distribution via their WhatsApp Chatbot to pilot with parents. The DBE and the DoH have jointly developed an Integrated Early Childhood Development Services concept document. Areas of focus are training on Road to Health, parental involvement, the use of the screening tool for 14 months to 5 years, pre-literacy skills and pre-numeracy skills. Training has already been conducted in six provinces: the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and Limpopo, and is ongoing.
A total of 73,742 teachers have been trained in specialised areas such as Braille, Autism and the South African Sign Language (SASL). The Universities of Pretoria, Johannesburg, Western Cape and WITS have been presenting disability courses for teachers. As part of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA’s) obligations 406 out of 461 (88%) public Special Schools have received ICT equipment, connectivity and assistive devices appropriate for the needs of each school, with 12,180 learner devices and 1,624 teacher devices distributed.
A total of 1,219 learners with special educational needs participated in the recent National School Sport Championships and in the ABC Motsepe South African Schools Eisteddfod (SASCE) with the Learners with Special Educational Needs Category separated into two to ensure fair participation and adjudication. This allowed more learners to participate in all levels of SASCE starting from school level up to the national level, with 426 learners in the Severe Intellectual Disability category and 827 learners in the Mild to Moderate Intellectual Disability, Physical Disability, Deaf and Blind category. “This is a clear message that the DBE is pulling out all the stops, also engaging with parents and the Inclusive Education sector to ensure collaboration, appropriate placement and the mainstreaming of inclusive education,” Mr Ngcobo concluded.