16/10/2021
Understanding Inclusive Education in South Africa
From the time democracy was achieved in South Africa, the government went through transformation. The aim was to build a democratic South Africa with a transformed constitution to promote equality and provide service to all citizens of South Africa. The delivery of education to children and adults as their right has been part of that process and development,however the educational sector was not ready to cater the needs of all citizens, due to lack of trained and equipped teachers and enough resources to help them teach, various approaches and transformation in educational sector and systems were introduced. The aim was to practice a new transformed policy of education that equips teachers and include everyone in learning.The framework of inclusive education was then laid down in the White Paper to focus on all special needs of children and adults.
In South African context, the approach is applied in various dimensions of society to carry out inclusive education. This means that the approach is framed to tackle teaching and learning while observing diversity in race, religion, culture, socio-economic status, disabilities and practice the approach to eliminate the exclusion of individuals to learning because of differences. It's most centered aim was overcoming barriers in the system that prevents individuals from meeting their needs in learning. Inclusive education looks at this factors and provide support, change teaching methods,curricula and learning environment to include everyone in learning. South Africa adopted new method of schooling by focusing on broader concept of schooling than formal. It catered for everyone by allowing art, skill, talent to provide opportunities that caters for everyone and also by providing environmental that accommodate to with physical barriers but have interest in furthering their studies.
