Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cikizwa Ntlali, who is disabled, was battling to find a school, but has finally been placed at a special needs school.
“I am filled with happiness now that I am going back to school next year,” Cikizwa told GroundUp.
“I am looking forward to working hard and achieving my dream.”
Cikizwa is 17 years old but is yet to start high school, having missed five years of schooling while receiving medical treatment for a spinal condition that has left her paralysed.
Pupils with disabilities are supposed to be placed in ordinary schools where possible, and provincial education MECs are supposed to ensure that appropriate support is provided.
But Cikizwa lives in Xhora Mouth in rural Eastern Cape, where access to schools is limited. The roads are bad, and most children walk long distances to school or rent basic accommodation near high schools. The nearest public high school is about 10km away.
For Cikizwa, neither of these is an option. Cikizwa’s sister and father carried her to primary school, but this would be impossible for high school. Motorised transport is not affordable.
So, finding a placing at the nearest special needs school in East London, 220km from her home, was the best option.
Traditional leader of Xhora Mouth Nosintu Gwebindlala helped Cikizwa to undergo the necessary assessments to qualify for admission to the school. Each return trip to Elliotdale, where the assessments took place, cost Gwebindlala R800.
Asked in October about Cikizwa’s situation, Eastern Cape education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said the education MEC would launch a “service on wheels” project in which a team of specialists would visit all rural areas in the province to help enrol pupils with disabilities at schools.
He said the specialists would visit her area by the end of October. But it seems that instead, Gwebindlala was contacted directly and that Cikizwa was offered a place at the East London special needs school.
When GroundUp asked Mtima this week what had happened to the promised “service on wheels”, he declined to comment.
Instead, he criticised GroundUp for “looking for negative stories” and hung up the phone when we persisted with questions.
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