Inclusive Education recognises the right of ALL children to feel welcomed into a supportive educational environment in their own community. It refers to the capacity of ordinary local schools and ECD Centres to respond to the needs of ALL learners, including those requiring extra support because of learning or physical disability, social disadvantage, cultural difference or other barriers to learning.
In South Africa we now have a strong legislative and policy framework promoting an Inclusive Education system. The South African Constitution, The South African Schools Act, White Paper 6, The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child all place obligations on the state to ensure ALL children are given access to meaningful participation in learning in the general education system.
INFO FACTSHEET: What is Inclusive Education
I am excited with some of the work done to improve the education system in SA. However, how is education inclusive whilst the marginalized are still taught abstract and complex concepts in a foreign language? A language which still carries a cold bloody history yet it is amazingly a language of teaching and learning (LOLT), how is that inclusive education?