Education Support Services (ESS) is a collaborative team-based service offered to students, families, and districts. ESS is designed to help students reach their academic goals and achieve better success within their school and home environments, enabling more positive outcomes.
It is our intent to partner with districts to create a larger spectrum of services, meeting the challenging needs of students that districts face.
Education Support Services In South Africa
Speech-language therapy.
Occupational and physical therapy.
Counseling.
Adaptive physical education (accommodations for gym class)
Early identification and screening.
School health services.
Social work.
The Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) Directorate: Inclusive and Specialised Education Support offers a range of services for learners who experience barriers to learning or have special educational needs that require additional support and are vulnerable. The directorate also provides capacity building for educators who provides for these learners. These services include:
psychological, social work, education therapy and learning support education programmes in ordinary schools (including full-service/inclusive schools) and special schools. The directorate manages 72 special schools. Specialized Support Services are also based at district offices in all 8 education districts of the Western Cape.
Four of the district offices are in the metro region of Cape Town and 4 are in the rural areas. Each circuit in a district has a team comprising a social worker, psychologist and learning support advisor.
Other services at the district level include a manager for specialized support services, senior therapist, senior psychologist, senior social worker, learning support coordinator and an HIV Care and Support Coordinator.
The WCED policy is to provide support to the learners in ordinary schools as far as possible. We take the support to the learners rather than the learner to the support. Itinerant learning support teachers provide support in ordinary schools. Selected ordinary schools have been developed into full-service/inclusive schools to provide moderate level support.
We place learners with high support needs at special schools for as long as this level of support is needed. Designated special school resource centres have multi-disciplinary outreach teams that support ordinary schools, focusing on full-service/inclusive schools.
Learners access services according to their level of need via the WCED support pathway, which incorporates the national Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support protocol. Applications for high-level support are via school-based support teams to the district-based support team.
We collaborate with the departments of health and social development to access supplementary services and implement the integrated school health programme.
The directorate, with other role-players, strives to develop an inclusive education system with support available in a range of settings for all those learners who require this.
What are the support services provided to students with special needs In South Africa?
Examples of categories of services in IEPs include Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, and/or the provision of a classroom aide. Parents do not determine whether their child is eligible under the law, however, parents are entitled to participate in the development of the IEP.
What is support services in inclusive education In South Africa?
These may be located within the school or in the community, accessible to the family. These are i) Resource materials for students with SEN and educators ii) Transportation for students iii) Speech therapy iv) Physical and occupational therapy v) Counselling for children, parents and educators vi) Medical services.
What types of support do special education students receive In South Africa?
Some of these supports might include:
attending a conference or training related to the child’s needs,
getting help from another staff member or administrative person,
having an aide in the classroom, or.
getting special equipment or teaching materials.
What are the types of educational support for inclusivity In South Africa?
There are two types of educational support for inclusivity and include partial inclusion and full inclusion. The levels of inclusion are internal view, external view, organizational view and worldwide view.
Which of the following factors supports meaningful learning in the classroom In South Africa?
Therefore the factor of Showing genuine interest in the content matter and having concern for children’s overall well-being and learning supports meaningful learning in the classroom.