South Africa's education system has shut out about half-a-million children living with disabilities, the Human Rights Watch has said in a recent report.
This is contained in a report, released on Tuesday at a joint event with South Africa's Human Rights Commission.
According to the 94-page report, there is widespread discrimination against children with disabilities in enrollment decisions, implying that the South African government has failed to guarantee the right to education for many.
Children's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, and author of the report, Elin Martínez, said the research revealed that that children with disabilities face discriminatory physical and attitudinal barriers right from their early years.
"The South African government needs to admit that it is not providing quality education to all of its children - in fact, no schooling at all to many who have disabilities," Martínez said.
"The job is not done until all children count just the same in the education system."
It will be recalled that South Africa was in the forefront of ratifying the UN Disability Rights Treaty, which basically requires governments to promote inclusive education systems in their countries.
The South African government has in the past claimed it has achieved the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of enrolling all children in primary schools by 2015.