Using a combined bio-ecological and capability perspective to understand inclusive education in South Africa

The challenges of realising inclusive education in South Africa

In South Africa, up to 70% of children of school-going age with disabilities are out of school. Of those who do attend, most are still in separate, “special” schools for learners with disabilities. This situation prevails despite the push for the educational inclusion of learners with disabilities over twelve years ago by the South African policy document, the Education White Paper 6. In this a...

Inclusive education: a Pacific perspective

People of the Pacific are urged to note that inclusive education, as defined by UNESCO , is ‘a process of addressing and responding to the diversity of needs of all learners through increasing participation in learning ... and reducing exclusion within and from education’ (Booth, 996 cited in UNESCO, 2003:7). The objective is to support education for all, with special emphasis on removing barri...

1 Inclusive Education in a Rural Context in South Africa : Emerging Policy and Practices

Inclusive education: A transformation and human rights agenda under spotlight in South Africa

This study investigated the progress made in the implementation of inclusive education as a transformation and human rights tool since its inception in 2001. The study was conducted upon realising that most people underestimate the transformation and human rights value that inclusive education strives to maintain. The total number of participants interviewed was 84. Data was collected using sem...

A journey towards inclusive education; a case study from a ‘township’ in South Africa

The purpose of this case study was to relate part of the journey to appropriate education for two young children with physical disabilities in a low socio-economic peri-urban informal settlement - or 'township' - in South Africa. The part of the on-going journey described here spanned four-and-a-half years and included the two children, their families, their teachers, their community and a smal...