A critical analysis of law and policy on the education of disabled children in South Africa

Abstract

From the literature we learn that existing educational frameworks that inform law and policy- making on the education of disabled children deal extensively with the curricular and educational concerns of disabled children. Yet, these frameworks leave out the pivotal issue of children‟s human right to education. The rights-based frameworks address human rights issues in a grand fashion, but give scanty educational guidelines on the actual education of disabled children, rendering hollow the human rights credo they espouse. South Africa has been one of a few countries which made attempts at addressing both the human rights concerns facing learners with disabilities and their curricular and pedagogic needs. The country embarked upon extensive efforts of legislative and policy formulation that are, in some respects, unparalleled in the world. Hence, this country is a potential storehouse of good practices on the education of children with disabilities with the potential to inform the re-formulation of existing African and global frameworks on the right to education of disabled children. Furthermore, the impressive novelty contained in South African education laws and policies notwithstanding, there are a number of issues which should be addressed in the country‟s education environment, including how the laws and policies are implemented. It is to be acknowledged that laws and policies are only as good as their implementation. Mindful of the above situation prevailing at the global level and the national (South African) level, this study offers a framework that marries the right to education of children with disabilities with educational theory on and practice in regard to the education of disabled children. The framework is constructed on the basis of current international literature on both disability and education and related South African law and policy instruments. In terms of its methodology, the study employed a generic or non-categorical qualitative design, also called methodological bricolage. Under this overall design, two principal modes of inquiry were applied, namely the enlightenment mode to policy analysis and critical law and policy discourse analysis. Theoretically, the study is anchored in the human rights variant of the Social Model of Disability, Critical Theory and Post-structural paradigms.