Chairperson, Mr Gamede, thank you for raising this important issue.
The Department of Basic Education is monitoring the implementation of inclusive education in our provinces. The department monitors the implementation in the following ways. Firstly, provinces provide reports on progress made in the implementation of inclusive education at provincial, district and school levels. The reports highlight successes as well as challenges faced in the implementation of inclusive education.
Secondly, specialised audits are conducted to measure progress made and make recommendations for interventions at both full-service and special schools.
With regard to where the implementation has taken place, the first stage of the policy implementation took place in 30 districts, 30 full-service schools and 34 special schools in the poorest part of all nine provinces between 2002 and 2009. During this phase, the Department of Basic Education aimed to introduce a number of systemic measures that would lay the foundation for a system-wide implementation of the policy for inclusive education in South Africa.
With regard to progress achieved, I will just name a few things. The budget for implementing the policy was expanded by the National Treasury from zero to R1,5 billion over a period of three years, that is from 2008 to 2011. More than 7 000 educators and officials have been trained on the key policy implementation guidelines. These include guidelines for inclusive teaching and learning and the National Strategy on Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support. Guidelines for full-service or inclusive schools and guidelines for quality education in special schools and special school resource centres have been distributed to managers throughout the system of education, and they are also used by universities as material for teacher development.
The principle of environmental access has been included in the national school infrastructure norms, and no new schools that are not accessible will be built. Officials in 30 districts in the country have been trained on the requirements of running an inclusive education system. Special schools know what the implications of the changing role are within an inclusive landscape. At least 30% of the budget allocated by the National Treasury has been made available to raise standards of physical infrastructure in curriculum delivery in special schools to improve quality education, quality teaching and learning. A total of 912 children in 34 schools have received appropriate assistive devices, which will enable them to have access to education. We spent R20 million in the current year, and more money will be spent for this particular purpose.
With regard to progress in KwaZulu-Natal, this province has developed a provincial strategy for the implementation of inclusive education. The roll- out of the provincial strategy to establish schools as inclusive centres of learning, care and support commenced in 2008. The strategy shows that the first phase of implementation would span the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, period 2008 to March 2012. This would cover the establishment of 50 full-service schools, the piloting of a provincial model of a special school as a resource centre and the strengthening of 16 special schools identified to be potential SSRCs, or special schools as resource centres. These identified full-service schools and SSRCs are allocated in all 12 educational districts within the province. The exact location of these schools can be obtained from the provincial education district offices.
In conclusion, we recently had a mini World Cup, and we had 6 884 schools participating. I'm very proud to stand here and say that amongst the categories of learners - the under-18 and under-16 boy and girl learners - we had a special category for our special schools. Amongst the 96 games that were played in the finals, there was a category devoted, to learners with disabilities. This means that they are caring. A humane society would pay particular attention to learners with special needs. Yet, the challenges are great. But together we can do more. Thank you, Chairperson.