Welcome to the Inclusive Education Site!

"EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL LEARNERS TO LEARN AND SUCCEED"

This site focuses on the policy and practices contained in the Education White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System to be implemented in South Africa over a period of 20 years.

The logo symbolises the birth of inclusion in all domains and at all levels. Inclusion deals with issues of Human rights, celebrating similarities and dignifying differences.

Inclusion is more than just physical access to schools! It is including learners on all levels: social inclusion, curriculum accessibility and emotional inclusion.
1.Historical overview
2.Definition
3.Education White Paper 6: Special Education Needs
4.Barriers to learning

A historical overview of Special Education and Inclusive Education in South Africa.

In order to understand the concept of Inclusive Education within the South African context,one needs to reflect on the history of Special Education . Prior to 1994, the South African Education Department was split into 18 racially divided education departments. Each education department had their own policies regarding learners with special education needs. Not all education departments made provision for these learners and the disadvantaged communities were totally marginalised. There were extreme disparities and discrepencies in the provision for specialised education for the different race groups and virtually no provision for black disabled children at a preschool level.

Special schools for children who were deaf, hard of hearing, blind, partially sighted, epileptic, cerebral palsied and physically disabled were started in some education departments. After commissions of inquiry investigated children with minimal brain dysfunction(1969), autistic children (1971) and the severely
mentally handicapped children (1974), special schools for these children were also started.
The institutions of the severely mentally handicapped children were known as 'training centres'.
After the 1988 Education Affairs Act was passed, these training centres were then regarded as 'schools'.
The separation of these learners into various institutions placed a heavy financial burden on the State. Not only were they separated and categorised on the grounds of their disability, but also on race and culture.

Children who needed special resources, adaptations to the curriculum or different assessment strategies to aid them with their learning were often referred to as 'learners with special education needs'. These children were tested by the school psychologists and depending upon their Intelligence Quotient (IQ) score, they received instruction either in a 'special or adaptation class' at a mainstream school or at special schools. This led to the 'labelling', catergorising and stigmatising of young children, which had an adverse effect on their self- esteem and self worth.


Even though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1949 emphasised the right of every human to be educated, Johnson (1986,p 1-2) documented several instances in United States of America, from as early as 1893 to 1973, of discrimination against learners with disabilities and who were prevented from receiving an education. These learners were institutionalised because they could not be accommodated in the education system.

Today these laws are no longer valid and all learners regardless of their disabilities are entitled to a free public education. In 1975, an Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed to provide free education and appropriate services to learners with disabilities and furthermore in Article 2 of the Convention on the Right of the Child, (UN, 1989), it was also indicated that no child should be discriminated against and every child has the right to receive an education.

Inclusion has also been the main focus of educational debate in United Kingdom for the past ten years, indicating a progression from the controversy of the last twenty-five years surrounding the concept and practices of integration. The three traditional provisions of integration identified by the Warnock Committee(DES, 1978) - locational, social and functional - have been the main methods of bringing children with special educational needs together with their peers.
The Green Paper (DfEE, 1997), concerned with meeting special education needs suggests that special schools should work more closely with mainstream schools in order to increase inclusion and it states that:
"If we are to move successfully to greater inclusion, it is essential that pupils with complex special education needs in mainstream schools receive specialist support. The role of the special schools should reflect this changing context".

At the 1990 Jomtien World Conference, in Thailand, the goals for 'Education for All' were set and it was proclaimed that every person - child, youth and adult shall be able to benefit from educational opportunities which would meet their basic learning needs. Ever since that conference, Unesco, along with other UN agencies, a number of international and national non-governmental organisations have been working towards these goals.
The inclusion of pupils with barriers to learning and development in ordinary schools and classrooms is part of a global human rights movement. In 1994, at the UNESCO World Conference on Special Needs Education held in Salamanca, Spain, the idea of inclusive education was given further impetus. The conference considered the future international direction of Special Needs to ensure the rights of children to receive a basic education.

The marginalisation and exclusion of learners from an educational system was addressed at the Dakar World Education Forum in April 2000 and it was so aptly captured in the statement:
"The key challenge is to ensure that a broad vision of Education for All as an inclusive concept is reflected in national government and funding agency policies. Education for All… must take account of the need of the poor and the most disadvantaged…young people and adults affected by conflict, HIV/AIDS, hunger and poor health: and those with special learning needs….."

The turning point for all South Africans occurred in 1994 as a result of a Democratic Election and significant educational reforms have taken place characterised by a spirit of democracy.
The South African Constitution (Act 108 of 1996), founded our democratic state and common citizenship on the values of human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms (Section1a).
The Constitution, Sections 29 (1) and 9 (2,3,4&5), further provides a special challenge to all of us by requiring that we give all learners the fundamental right to basic education addressing the imbalances of the past by focussing on the key issues of access, equity and redress.

At the beginning of 1997, the National Commission on Special Needs in Education and Training (NCSNET) and National Committee for Education Support Services (NCESS) were appointed to investigate and make recommendations on all aspects of special needs and support services in South Africa.
The Education White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education: Building an Inclusive Education and Training System outlines how the system should transform itself to accommodate the full range of learning needs and establish a caring and humane society.

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What is Inclusive Education?
Many definitions of inclusive education have evolved throughout the world. It ranges from
'extending the scope of ordinary schools so that they can include a greater diversity of children' (Clark et al.,1995) to a 'set of principles which ensures that the student with a disability is viewed as a valued and needed member of the community in every respect' (Uditsky, 1993, p88). Some definitions focus on human interaction, Forest and Pearpoint (1992) see inclusion as a way of dealing with difference, while Ballard, 1995; Clark et al., 1995; Rouse and Florian, !996, adopt an institutional perspective and focus on organisational arrangements and school improvement.

The following two South African definitions of Inclusive Education are the perspectives of the reference committees and consultative bodies who were commissioned to investigate the future of Special Education.
Inclusive Education is defined as a learning environment that promotes the full personal, academic and professional development of all learners irrespective of race, class, gender, disability, religion, culture, sexual preference, learning styles and language. [NCSNET/ NCESS 1998] AND

In the Education White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education:Building an Inclusive Education and Training System(2001), Inclusive Education is about:

• Acknowledging that all children and youth can learn and that all children and youth need support
  
• Accepting and respecting that all learners are different in some way and have different learning needs which are equally valued and an ordinary part of our human experience.
  
• Enabling education structures, systems and learning methodologies to meet the needs of all learners.
  
• Acknowledging and respecting differences in learners whether due to age, gender, ethnicity, language, class, disability or HIV status.
  
• Changing attitudes, behaviour, teaching methodologies, curricula and the environment to meet the needs of all learners.
  
• Maximising the participation of all learners in the culture and the curricula of educational institutions and uncovering and minimising barriers to learning.
  
• Empowering learners by developing their individual strengths and enabling them to participate critically in the process of learning.
  
• Acknowledging that learning also occurs in the home and community, and within formal and informal modes and structures.

The inclusion of learners with 'special education needs' or 'learning barriers' into mainstream classes, is part of a universal human rights movement.
It has therefore become imperative for all countries to create "equal oportunities for all learners to learn and succeed".
Inclusive Education addresses the educational needs of all learners in a non-threatening, supportive learning environment, this includes learners who were formally disadvantaged and excluded from education because of "barriers to learning".

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What are these barriers to learning?
Barriers to learning and learning needs could be either permanent, recently acquired, fluctuating or circumstantial!
The following are some of the barriers to learning:

• Physical, mental, sensory, neurological and developmental impairments
• Psycho-social disturbances
• Differences in intellectual ability
• Particular life experiences
• Socio-economic deprivation
• Negative attitudes to and stereotyping of differences
• An inflexible curriculum
• Inappropriate languages or language and teaching
• Inappropriate communication
• Inaccessible and unsafe built environments
• Inappropriate and inadequate support services
• Inadequate policies and legislation
• The non-recognition and non-involvement of parents
• Inadequately and inappropriately trained education managers and educators

Approximately 15% of the total number of learners who are experiencing barriers to learning are catered for in Special Schools and the rest are in mainstream classes.
It is within that context that we should move swiftly towards an inclusive paradigm in the South African Education System, in order to cater for the needs of ALL learners.

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