Programme director
Dr Anlea Pretorius, Chairperson of Higher Education Disability Services Association (HEDSA)
The Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of the Free State and members of university management Leadership of disabled students
Coordinators and managers of disability offices in our universities
Delegates and guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I am delighted to address this gala dinner of the Higher Education Disability Services Association (HEDSA) under the theme “New Beginnings and New Directions”. The participation of the Department of Higher Education and Training in this annual general meeting of HEDSA is important for us because for far too long, disability issues have surfaced in our national and institutional policy documents and plans without meaningful action being taken to address the challenges which exist.
I hope that by the end of your meeting, practical ideas will emerge on how the Department of Higher Education and Training can partner with you to ensure that real change can take place to increase access and success rates of disabled people in institutions of higher learning.
Addressing issues affecting the disabled is a clear cross-cutting transformation imperative of my department and one of six forms of exclusion and discrimination we aim to overcome. The other issues central to the work of the ministry and department are race, class, gender, age, HIV and AIDS and disability. I am aware that as an association, you have been engaging with officials in my department and I feel confident that together we will begin to address the key issues. I have also read your input submitted to the ministerial review committee on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). You have raised valuable points and these are being considered and in some cases have been referred to the relevant bodies for consideration.
Higher Education in our country has undergone a significant process of transformation in recent years. At the centre of this process remains the goal of increasing access and success for the most disadvantaged groups in our society, including students with disabilities. A great deal of work has been carried out in the last few years to prioritise access for and improve services to students with disabilities in our universities.
While we must all appreciate the work already done, there are still significant challenges to be overcome in our system. These reflect a combination of factors, but include a lack of coherence in the higher education sector as to what comprehensive disability support in universities entails. Sadly, it also reflects a lack of commitment from some higher education institutions to ensure the right environment for learning and working for students and staff with disabilities. This continued neglect of services to disabled students and staff is surprising because our policy commitments are clear on this matter.
Unfortunately the provision of education for disabled students continues to be shaped by South Africa's socio-economic realities, reflected in class and racial inequalities. Our data tells us that high numbers of students who enter the higher education system do not graduate in the minimum time, and many discontinue their studies along the way. I am concerned that disability should not be an added disadvantage for students, already disadvantaged by a lack of funding, and other barriers to success in higher education. It is important that we ensure students with disabilities are not made more vulnerable by our practices and policies and this means identifying clear and specific strategies for support to these students.
The 2008 report of the ministerial committee on transformation and social cohesion and the elimination of discrimination in public higher education institutions, known as the Soudien Report, reflected on discrimination in many areas, including disability, and noted that:
“All institutions have a comprehensive range of policies in place to deal with issues of transformation and discrimination. However, it was evident that there is a disjuncture between policy development and implementation.”
Nowhere is this more evident than in the area of support to students and staff with disabilities. The report also noted the lack of discussion in institutional submissions about issues of disability, amongst others. I congratulate you on creating a platform where these issues can be tabled, deliberated and solutions found.
In order to properly understand the requirements for improving access and success for disabled students, we must have good data. The Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS) does collect information from universities about disabilities and the Employment Equity reporting system requires that institutions also report on disability of staff. We must continue to improve our reporting in this area. The Department of Higher Education and Training is exploring ways of improving our data collection, management and integration in all our areas of work, including the vocational college sector, adult education and skills training areas.
This is part of a process to improve our skills planning mechanisms and competence, and will include a strategic skills intelligence system. Information about the situation of people with disabilities must be integrated into these processes so we are able to understand the challenges better and plan to address them in all our areas of work. Data collection and investigation must be used to assist government in planning and the allocation of resources to universities. We must find better ways of tracking the performance of disabled students in the system.
The Soudien report noted:
“As far as disability is concerned, there seems to be a general recognition that there has been limited progress made in addressing the needs of the disabled, both in terms of the physical infrastructure, as well as educational support structures. The lack of access for the disabled to higher education is indicated by the fact that, in 2007, there were 4 325 disabled students in higher education, representing 0.6% of the total headcount enrolments for higher education.”
Our 2009 figures show that there are 4666 students with disability in the system. This continues to be a very low proportion of the overall numbers in the university system, and while it may be a reflection of the broader education situation for people with disabilities, it means that there is still substantial work to be done. I am aware that the problem of funding is at issue as with the financially needy, but in these instances may be even more critical.
The National Plan for Higher Education commits our higher education institutions to increase access of learners with special education needs. As part of our monitoring and evaluation processes, we will continue to ask universities to inform us of progress made on this area, a commitment which I hope our colleagues in the sector will respond to. The success of the integrated but differentiated post schooling system depends largely on the commitment of our institutions.
Discrimination against people with disabilities does continue in our country, and as a result exists in our universities. The Soudien report included some comment on the discrimination experienced by students with disabilities in our institutions. These included issues of physical infrastructure and resources, but included references to institutional culture and sensitivity to the needs of disabled students.
Some comments from the report are worth noting:
• “The problems that she and other disabled students at the institution were experiencing seemed to stem from able-bodied students who failed to accept them as equals.”
• “The University is not disability-friendly. The access points for disabled students are at the back of the residences. The residences have disabled bedrooms, but wheelchairs can't get in. There is no information provided to prospective students about what arrangements can be made.”
• “There is no sensitivity to learning disabilities such as dyslexia. No separate rooms are provided to write the exams in so that [you are] not disturbed by other students. The bureaucracy around dyslexia is a problem. One needs letter from a doctor but it is not dealt with, so the letter gets outdated, application forms go missing, etc.”
• “The disabled students at this campus (University name removed) have not attended lectures for three weeks because there are no ramps.”
As you can see, the comments of students with our universities are wide-ranging, and affect all areas of university operation: teaching and learning arrangements, accommodation and physical infrastructure and experiences of institutional culture. Universities must address all these issues in their strategies to improve access to higher education for people with disabilities. The 2001 Annual Report of the Council for Higher Education (which had a specific focus on students with disabilities) remarked that even a 10% increase in the enrolment of students with disabilities might be counterproductive if universities do not have the adequate human skills and infrastructure to cater for the teaching and learning needs of such students. We must prioritise this.
Earlier this year, a Stakeholder Summit on Higher Education Transformation was convened in Cape Town. The Summit provided us with an opportunity to take stock of how the sector has evolved 12 years since the passage of the Higher Education Act (101 of 1997) and the White paper three on the Transformation of Higher Education. The Summit Declaration re-committed us all to the goals of the White Paper, to continue working for equity and redress in the system. The declaration also committed us to looking at the experiences of students in our universities, looking at d eveloping mechanisms to promote student - centeredness and caring universities and developing a charter on learning and teaching. The work that has started out of the HE Summit will need to include a clear focus on addressing disability.
In my budget vote speech in March, I made it clear that the new department will introduce an integrated but differentiated post schooling system which incorporates universities, colleges and training authorities. I believe that the broadening of opportunities for education and development is an important task if we are to redress inequalities that have for long existed in our society. We know that significant numbers of people with disabilities remain unskilled and without access to skills learning. Our new Department of Higher Education and Training is committed to increasing access to skills programmes of all types for people with disabilities. Our universities are key partners in ensuring that this happens.
The recently published report of the Commission for the Employment Equity reflects worryingly low levels of participation of disabled people in the mainstream economy. Systemic exclusion and marginalisation of disabled people is a poor reflection on the sector. The Higher Education and Training sector must provide access for students and staff with disabilities in order that people with disabilities are able to access the labour market to their full ability. I would expect our higher education sector to lead in this challenge.
The challenge we are faced with requires bold decisions and initiatives to address both the need to increase access to post-school opportunities for disabled people and also to change negative views about the competence for study and work of people with disabilities. The fears about the competence of people with disabilities and the support required for fully effective participation in the workplace are reminiscent of many other types of discrimination, and must be confronted head on.
Disability is an important yet often overlooked aspect of equity initiatives. It may be necessary to ask our colleagues at the Department of Labour to help us ensure that all Universities and Colleges comply with the Code of Good Practice on Disability as well as to review the scarce skills allocation in terms of students with disabilities. I believe that you very accurately captured this point in your submission to the NSFAS Ministerial Committee.
Further to this, we may require studies on the experiences of disabled staff within our universities to inform us better of the realities faced by students and staff with disabilities as well as of areas of good practice. University recruitment and human resource practices need to take cognisance of the special needs that staff with disabilities may have to fully participate in university life. We must move beyond mere compliance and counting numbers to addressing the qualitative aspects of our human resource environments. What specific strategies are in place for the recruitment and retention of staff with disabilities? What real accommodation is made for addressing the accommodation of particular disabilities? This sometimes requires that budgets are committed for this purpose, and therefore requires special planning.
I am also interested in what mechanisms exist to specifically encourage and support students with disabilities into postgraduate studies and whether our strategies to promote the new generation of academic scholars include a focus on disability. We require b old human resource strategies and practices that specifically target disabled staff and provide resources and opportunities in a focused manner.
We must also question what role are our institutional forums play in the promotion of the needs of students and staff with disability? Institutional forums have a broad mandate that includes issues of equity and transformation, and should be paying attention to issues of disability. Those working on disability can share important information about what good practices exist in the sector. We may need to develop regional approaches, where there are limited resources. This may allow us to develop excellent resources while increasing access and improving support.
Some of the reasons why the issue of disability has not received the necessary attention could be the manner in which we engage. Perhaps we should begin to create much broader platforms at a sectoral level to focus both on the challenges faced by disabled staff and students. The formation of HEDSA is a significant milestone for the sector, and provides an important space for confronting and challenging stereotypical ideas about people with disabilities and providing alternatives for the sector. I am interested in building a close working relationship between my department and HEDSA to find ways of working together on these matters.
I am particularly interested in hearing the voices of our students and staff with disabilities, so that we are able to understand the challenges better and strategise effectively for solutions. A major responsibility of your organisation will be to advocate for greater participation and equity in the post-school system. We welcome robust discussion on this matter.
You would be aware that the national plan commits universities to indicate in their plans, the strategies and steps, with the relevant time frames to increase participation of disabled learners in the system. In some institutions, there has not been much progress. The plan also provides the department with the opportunity to recommend minimum levels of provision for learners with special needs, an area which the department must consider seriously if we are to achieve this integrated post education system.
Curriculum transformation is an important part of the transformation of our higher education sector to respond to immediate socio-economic challenges. Universities must provide adequate systems to support the teaching and learning of disabled students, and this includes examining the design, format and methods of teaching built into university curricula to respond to the special needs that students with disability have. This will go a long way to transform the sector. In the current environment, academic development practices in universities do not cater adequately for the special learning and support needs of disabled students.
It is my view that all stakeholders should work together to begin a discussion about the introduction of sector-wide minimum levels of provision for education of those with disabilities. This is something that my department will participate in actively.
I quote from the Soudien report again, which reflects on the effects of discrimination on society, and which I think bears reflection in relation to issues of disability:
“These costs are, however, also physical in nature. This is evident in the dehumanising acts of humiliation perpetrated and experienced daily in contemporary South Africa. Perpetrators never fully come to experience what it means to be a dignified human being. They live and operate in a world that reinforces the misconception that the best of what it means to be a human being is represented by their lifestyles, desires and aspirations. Victims are denied the opportunity either through a lack of access to opportunities or due to outright discrimination to realise their full potential. In the process, the country is robbed of valuable but untapped human resources. Higher education institutions cause incalculable damage to South African society by failing to deal boldly with these issues. Where institutions have indeed taken action, the benefits to individuals, to the different social groups in the country, as well as to the institutions themselves, have been major.”
Ladies and gentlemen, we have much to do to overcome discrimination of all forms in our institutions of higher learning and in society as a whole. We look forward to the outcomes of this symposium to assist in this process. Let me also congratulate you in the process of electing new leadership and hope that we will work together to overcome the challenges we face in the area of disability.
I thank you.
