The Metropole East Education District of the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) will open the doors of the Khayelitsha School of Skills for those children who having special needs.

The process to create an inclusive education and training system, begun in October 1996 with the appointment of the National Commission on Special Needs in Education and Training and the National Committee on Education Support Services. Learners who are most vulnerable to barriers to learning and exclusion are those who have historically been termed "learners with special needs" or "learners with disabilities and impairments".

The Metropole East Education District shares the vision of the National Education Department to create an inclusive Education System that will provide all learners with the opportunity to learn. The District acknowledges and respects the differences in learners whether due to age, gender, ethnicity, language, class, disability, HIV or other infectious diseases, etc.

The District wishes to change attitudes, behaviour, teaching methods, curricula and the environment to meet the needs of all learners; to maximise the participation of all learners in the culture and the curriculum of educational institutions and uncovering and minimising the barriers to learning.

The opening of the Khayelitsha School of Skills is part of this very important process which is critical to our education and training system. The opening is evidence that the District regards the following as a priority:

• Providing specialised education and support to all learners qualifying for it and not only to the previously privileged e.g. the whites.
• The curriculum and the education system to work as one to cater for the diverse needs of the learner populations and to avoiding the massive number of drop-outs, push-outs and failures.

The school currently has a number of 50 learners from the ages of 14 to 18 years, and aims to accommodate 100 learners in future.

This Media Alert was issued by the Western Cape Education Department, Metropole East Education District.