The National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) says the wave of school closures triggered by protests in KwaZulu-Natal lays bare a deeper failure in South Africa’s inclusive-education system.
The NCPD reports that in October 2025, 38 special schools in KwaZulu-Natal remained closed as locked gates symbolised protests by parents and educators demanding overdue subsidies from the provincial Department of Education.
Hundreds of thousands of children with disabilities are still excluded from formal education — estimates range from 500 000 to 600 000 learners, and studies suggest up to 950 000 may never start school.
The protest-driven shutdown is not a one-off but reflects a broader pattern of systemic neglect: teachers managing oversized classes, schools refusing learners with disabilities, and waiting lists of up to four years for placement.
The NCPD calls for urgent action: compulsory inclusive-pedagogy training, accessible infrastructure and support systems, fully inclusive digital learning, and data that tracks disability across the education system. Without radical transformation, the crisis affecting children with disabilities will deepen — the protests aren’t just disruptions, they are signals of a system in collapse.
