As part of their work, the SAFMH National Youth Advocacy and Advisory Forum are encouraged to take up advocacy initiatives that are meaningful to them. Callagn Frieslaar (KZN) wrote the below research report as part of her advocacy for inclusive education.
Callagn said, “My focus on inclusive education is rooted in a passion for supporting neurodiverse individuals. When exploring the limited literature on the topic, a key finding that stood out to me was that while South Africa’s inclusive education policy framework is progressive and theoretically sound, the real challenge lies in implementation. The barriers we often see are just surface-level symptoms of deeper, systemic issues related to policy execution.”
- Introduction
Inclusive education, as a philosophy and practice, speaks to a system of schooling whereby individuals are awarded equitable opportunities for high-quality learning alongside their peers, regardless of individual differences and disabilities (UNICEF, 2017; Garrett, 2022; Kefallinou et al., 2020). Founded on values of equity, diversity, acceptance, and access (VVOB South Africa, 2019), the Education White Paper 6 Special Education Needs: Building an Inclusive Education System (2001) reflects that, through transformation, inclusive education: “enables education structures…to meet the full range of learning needs” (White Paper 6, 6). This reflects South Africa’s commitment to flexible curricula and assessments, adapting school infrastructure, differentiating pedagogical choices, and utilising universal designs to maximise a learners’ academic potential, sense of belonging and mental wellbeing (Kirschner, 2015; Madhesh, 2023).
Different factors can create barriers for students, potentially ‘disabling’ them and limiting their access to equal learning opportunities (Walton & Engelbrecht, 2022). Racial, cultural, and differences in religion, socioeconomic status, the impact of individual learning styles, neurodevelopmental factors, sensory difficulties or limited physical ability, emotional factors, and gender differences that influence a student’s thinking ability and behaviour are addressed through inclusive policies. These practices are designed with the intention of preventing segregation, reducing discrimination, and equalising access to quality education opportunities through a three-tiered pyramid of interventions (Hove, 2014). Three-tiered pyramids of interventions refer to the low, medium, and high-level support and guidance learners receive, based on their level of difficulties (Chirowamhangu, 2024). At the base level, students experience few barriers to learning and are able to manage with mainstream curricula, pace and teaching methodologies (Wahman et al., 2025). However, at levels two and three, learners require more intensive and focused support, with the third level receiving one-on-one, guided instruction catered for their unique needs.
While inclusive education is often understood as the inclusion of children with differences within mainstream classes, through ordinary schools or full-service institutions designed and equipped to accommodate a range of learning barriers (Khumalo and Hodgson, Garrett, 2022), the provision of special schools and remedial units to cater for special educational needs and act as resource centres are central to the success of inclusive education policies. Both facilities aim to provide specialised support and curriculum flexibility to learners with educational barriers, through intensive and targeted small group or individual interventions; however, they differ based on the severity of a learner’s difficulties (Jardinez & Natividad, 2024). Barriers to learning typically supported by these schools include those considered complex, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disabilities (ID), severe mobility and sensory limitations, or behavioural challenges (Jardinez & Natividad, 2024). Furthermore, special schools are intended to offer training, guidance, and resources to mainstream educators or families (Sharma, 2023). Within South Africa, the primary method through which inclusion is implemented is through the Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS) document (Murungi, 2015). This document reflects standardised procedures used to assess and identify learners with additional support needs, provides guidelines for enrolment and admission into mainstream or special schools, and helps in identifying whether individualised education plans must be designed to enhance a student’s participation and involvement within schools and classrooms (DBE, 2025).
- Discussion
- The importance of inclusive education
Education and access to quality and adapted education, as laid out within the constitution, is a right awarded to all South Africans (Rapp & Corral-Granados, 2021). Failure to provide learning opportunities catered to a learner’s needs and requirements fosters exclusion, inequality and undermines the child’s human rights. While school systems are sources of knowledge and intellectual growth, they also serve as avenues for socioemotional and psychological development (Lindner et al., 2022). In other words, education systems, including interactions with peers, teachers, and the curriculum, play a significant role in the mental health of learners and young people. For instance, Terlich et al. (2024) and Otu and Sefotho (2024) found that neurodiverse learners are at a higher risk of comorbid depression and anxiety, peer rejection, academic difficulties, and challenges in terms of coping with mainstream schooling due to difficulties with emotional regulation, behaviour, and social interactions. Therefore, the provision of educational services that support a learner’s academic achievement and meet a student’s school-based needs contributes to one’s mental wellbeing and self-concept (Fielding et al., 2025).
Inclusive education and the provision of special schools and remedial units have individual, community, and political benefits. For instance, it is cost-effective to establish and maintain inclusion within mainstream schools, as opposed to creating additional, specialised facilities (Ainscow, 2020). For learners without special learning barriers, Kefallinou et al. (2020) found that their academic performance, sense of social inclusion and employment prospects post-school were enhanced when taught within well-designed inclusive classrooms, compared to full-time segregated services. Chirowamhangu (2024) highlights how children with disabilities encounter significant barriers accessing basic education, with previous research showing that 70% of learners with disabilities were not attending school (Stats SA, 2025). According to Stats SA (2025), Gauteng assumes the highest rate of special schools (34,8%), followed by the Western Cape (17.4%), KwaZulu-Natal (14.9%), Eastern Cape (8.3%) and North-West (2.2%). This reflects the slow deployment of resources to support a diversity of learners and highlights the need for more quality and accessible educational support structures, managed by trained educators and experts (Chirowamhangu, 2024).
- The current state of inclusive education in South Africa
Research reflects how, while expanding, the implementation of inclusive policies is uneven and slow. Based on the DBE briefing on inclusive education,
“the number of special schools increased from 295 to 489; full-service schools increased from 30 to 832; learners with disabilities in public ordinary schools increased from 77 000 to 121 461; the enrolment of learners in special schools increased from 435 to 137 483 nationally” (Mbinqo-Gigaba, 2023).
Despite these improvements, Chirowamhangu (2024) and Walton & Engelbrecht (2022) found a limited number of special needs schools available within the Eastern Cape, lengthy waiting lists restricting access to learners, and stringent enrolment criteria acting as barriers to access to the necessary support services. For example, children are only admitted into special schools based on their degree of educational need, with students falling within levels 4 and 5 of the Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS) document being admitted into specialised schools (du Plessis, 2013). Within mainstream and support schools, there is a lack of psychological and expert support services available for learners to address the psychological, physical, and neurological roots of a learners’ difficulties (Chirowamhangu, 2024). Mbinqo-Gigaba (2023) found that the condition of many special needs schools significantly undermined the educational outcomes and wellbeing of learners, making reference to poor facilities, a lack of assistive technology or devices, and inadequate staffing. Chirowamhangu (2024), who makes reference to inclusive education being ‘symbolic implementation’, reports on the ineffectiveness of SIAS. In practice, incongruencies in referral systems and a lack of departmental support in locating services and resources to sufficiently care for and educate learners with difficulties undermine SIAS’s purpose.
- Barriers to the successful implementation of inclusive education policies
The Education White Paper 6 Special Needs Education Building an inclusive education and training system (2001) is the leading document supporting the incremental implementation of inclusive practices within and across schools (DBE, 2021). It is accompanied by SIAS, the Constitution (1996) and the South African Schools Act (1996), documents on standard operating procedures, and guidelines for Full-service/inclusive schools and inclusive learning programmes. Designed to ensure past discriminatory practices of apartheid are not perpetuated and projected into modern education systems, this policy ecosystem recognises that there are barriers to learning that must be catered for within the classroom and provides a framework within which barriers to learning can be addressed, managed, or removed (DBE, 2021).
A range of factors hinders the implementation of inclusive education policies, both within mainstream schools and in more specialised education facilities (Motitswe, 2025). These difficulties are often compounded by the challenges in implementing basic education. Structural limitations that create insufficient learning facilities include school incapacitation, namely financially, skill-wise, and infrastructurally (Jardinez & Natividad, 2024). Many schools have inaccessible facilities, limited adaptive equipment or teaching and learning resources, restricted access to multidisciplinary support services, and students who are unable to afford transport costs to distantly located schools (Mazuruse et al., 2021). Educators lack the necessary training, skill, and knowledge on special and remedial education, policies like SIAS, and inclusive teaching methods (Mazuruse et al., 2021). This sense of incompetence within teachers is fostered in classroom environments characterised by time constraints, heavy workloads, overcrowding and a rigid Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document (Mihajlovic, 2020). CAPS is a comprehensive document that standardises education across different continents and outlines the requirements for all subjects taught within South Africa (DBE, 2011; Ajani, 2021).
Stigma and social status factors play a significant role in the difficulties with implementing inclusive education. Negative perceptions about inclusion and support services among educators, parents, and students — along with fears of potential discrimination — can undermine an individual’s willingness to implement inclusive policies and practices (Walton & Engelbrecht, 2022; Jardinez & Natividad, 2024). For instance, parents experience denial when faced with their child’s learning needs and fear the social implications of receiving ‘special’ support (Chirowamhangu, 2024). Furthermore, community and individual acceptance of learner disabilities are often hindered by cultural beliefs that attribute such difficulties to witchcraft, sin, or ancestral disapproval (Motitswe, 2025). Competitiveness within the schooling systems, whereby schools are focused on attracting certain learner and parent profiles, achieving high academic standards, and outperforming other schools, increases the exclusion of learners with educational barriers (Akabor, 2019; Hollings, 2021).
Beyond financial and training constraints, a lack of clarity around the concept of inclusivity and its confusion with ‘integration’, ‘mainstreaming’ and ‘placement’ complicate the implementation of inclusive policies (Madhesh, 2023; Woolfson, 2024). For example, Garrett (2022) highlights how inclusionary practices change depending on cultural and policy-driven factors. Furthermore, legal and political barriers, according to Jardinez and Natividad (2024), restrict the advancement of inclusive practices. In South Africa, inclusive education is not mandated for schools; it operates as a policy, not a law (Chirowamhangu, 2024).
- Recommendations on how to improve the implementation of inclusivity within and across schools
Adebayo et al. (2020) state that a combination of school-based, community-focused, and intra-individual factors are central tools for tackling and improving broader educational outcomes and inclusionary education. Recommendations include:
- Annual in-service and pre-service skills training and knowledge development opportunities must be interspersed within the schooling system to foster capacity building (Garrett, 2022; Hollings, 2021). For instance, courses on inclusive education and legal policies must be incorporated into Bachelor of Education (BED) degrees and other teacher training courses (Magodla, 2019). Furthermore, the New Teacher Induction programme reflects how educators can be supported through classroom diversity using personal, social, and professional supports, provided through mentoring, expert, peer, and self-reflection systems (Mudzingwa, 2019).
- The implementation of district-based support teams (DBST) and school-based support teams (SBST) to support educators in navigating inclusive practices (Magodla, 2019).
- Monitoring and evaluation system must be designed (Madhesh, 2023). Inclusion is not a one-size-fits-all concept and, as a process, it must be customised for each learner’s unique educational needs. A system of evaluating a school’s progress and creating a standard for inclusionary education will support schools and educators in navigating structural changes emerging from inclusivity (Garrett, 2022). Currently, the Guidelines for Full-service/Inclusive Schools put forth by the DOE is helpful in providing minimum standards for inclusivity within schools (du Plessis, 2013)
To meet the inclusive education policy commitments and make it a reality within and across South African schools, it requires investment, commitment, and attitudinal shifts on the part of the policymakers and government officials, district, national and provisional stakeholders, parents and caregivers, teachers and schools, and learners themselves.
References
Adebayo, K. A., Ntokozo, N., & Grace, N. Z. (2020). Availability of Educational Resources and Student Academic Performances in South Africa. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(8), 3768–3781. https://doi.org/10.13189/ujer.2020.080858
Ainscow, M. (2020). Promoting Inclusion and Equity in education: Lessons from International Experiences. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 6(1), 7–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2020.1729587
Ajani, O.A. (2021). Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (Caps) Document: The Challenges and Limitations to Its Effectiveness in South African Schools. African Journal of Development Studies (formerly AFFRIKA Journal of Politics, Economics and Society, 11(3). https://journals.co.za/doi/full/10.31920/2634-3649/2021/v11n3a4
Akabor, S. (2019). 5. Are visible rewards congruent with Inclusive Education? Inclusive Education South Africa, 2(1), 1-44. https://www.included.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Inclusion-in-Education-Vol-2.pdf
Chirowamhangu, R. (2024). Inclusive education pandemic: Learning barriers for children with disabilities in South Africa. African Journal of Disability, 13(0), 10. https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/1462/3026
Department of Basic Education. 2011. Curriculum and Assessment Policy (CAPS). https://www.education.gov.za/Curriculum/CurriculumAssessmentPolicyStatements(CAPS).aspx
Department of Basic Education. (2021). Inclusive Education. Www.education.gov.za. https://www.education.gov.za/Programmes/InclusiveEducation.aspx
du Plessis, P. (2013). Legislation and policies: Progress towards the right to inclusive education. De Jure Law Journal, 46(1), 76–92. https://scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2225-71602013000100006
Fielding, C., Streeter, A., Riby, D., & Hanley, M. (2025). Neurodivergent Pupils’ Experiences of School Distress and Attendance Difficulties. Neurodiversity, 3. https://doi.org/10.1177/27546330251327056
Garrett, M. (2022). Defining Inclusionary Education: A Review of Recent Literature. Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education, 13(2), 1-10. ..\..\Downloads\16Garrett.pdf
Hollings, S. (2021). Implementation Barriers of Inclusive Education and their Impact on Stakeholders: A Review of the Literature. International Journal of Childhood Education, 2(1), 27-45. https://doi.org/10.33422/ijce.v2i1.36
Hove, N. (2014). The Effectiveness of Special Schools in the Teaching of Children with Learning Disabilities in South Africa. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(20). https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p1903
Jardinez, M. J., & Natividad, L. R. (2024). The Advantages and Challenges of Inclusive Education: Striving for Equity in the Classroom. Shanlax International Journal of Education , 12(2), 57–65. https://doi.org/10.34293/education.v12i2.7182
Kefallinou, A., Symeonidou, S., & Meijer, C. J. W. (2020). Understanding the value of inclusive education and its implementation: A review of the literature. Prospects, 49(3-4), 135–152. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-020-09500-2
Kirschner, S. (2015, January). Inclusive education. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/293337563_Inclusive_Education
Lindner, K.-T., Hassani, S., Schwab, S., Gerdenitsch, C., Kopp-Sixt, S., & Holzinger, A. (2022). Promoting Factors of Social Inclusion of Students With Special Educational Needs: Perspectives of Parents, Teachers, and Students. Frontiers in Education, 7(7). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.773230
Madhesh, A. (2023). The concept of inclusive education from the point of view of academics specialising in special education at Saudi universities. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01802-y
Mazuruse, G., Makoni, T., & Nyagadza, B. (2021). Inclusive Education Implementation Challenges Facing Selected Primary and Secondary Schools in Mashonaland East Province in Zimbabwe. International Journal of Educational Development in Africa, 6(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.25159/2312-3540/9690
Mbinqo-Gigaba, B. (2023). Inclusive Education: DBE briefing. Parliamentary Monitoring Group. https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/37416/
Mihajlovic, C. (2020). Special educators perceptions of their role in inclusive education: A case study in Finland. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 4(2), 83–97. https://doi.org/10.33902/jpr.2020060179
Motitswe, J. M. C. (2025). Teachers’ perceptions on including learners with barriers to learning in South African inclusive education system. African Journal of Disability, 14(0), 10. https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/1543/3345
Mudzingwa, E. (2019). 2. Key findings of the evaluation of the Pilot New Teacher Induction Programme, 2019. Inclusive Education South Africa, 2(1), 5-10. https://www.included.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Inclusion-in-Education-Vol-2.pdf
Murungi, L. (2015). Inclusive basic education in South Africa: issues in its conceptualisation and implementation. Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal/Potchefstroomse Elektroniese Regsblad, 18(1), 3159. https://doi.org/10.4314/pelj.v18i1.07
Otu, M. S., & Sefotho, M. M. (2024). Examination of emotional distress, depression, and anxiety in neurodiverse students: A cross-sectional study. World Journal of Psychiatry, 14(11), 1681–1695. https://doi.org/10.5498/wjp.v14.i11.1681
Rapp, A. C., & Corral-Granados, A. (2021). Understanding inclusive education – a theoretical contribution from system theory and the constructionist perspective. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 28(4), 1–17.
Sharma, R. (2023). The Crucial Role of Special Schools and Educators in Promoting Inclusive Education. Global International Research Thoughts, 9(1), 6–9. https://girt.shodhsagar.com/index.php/j/article/view/42
Stats SA. (2025). Child Protection Week 2025: Spotlight on Education Access for Children with Special Needs. Department: Statistics South Africa. https://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=18486
Terlich, R., Krishnamoorthy, G., & Fein, E. C. (2024). Supporting the Mental Health Needs of Neurodivergent Students: Outcomes of a Mental Health Literacy Program for Primary School Educators. Education Sciences, 14(10), 1069–1069. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14101069
UNICEF. (2017). Inclusive education: Including children with disabilities in quality learning: what needs to be done? In UNICEF. UNICEF. https://www.unicef.org/eca/sites/unicef.org.eca/files/IE_summary_accessible_220917_brief.pdf
VVOB South Africa. (2019). 3. Can Professional Learning Communities help teachers to build the capacity to teach more inclusively? Evidence from South Africa. Inclusive Education South Africa, 2(1), 11-16. https://www.included.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Inclusion-in-Education-Vol-2.pdf
Wahman, C. L., Steed, E. A., & Leech, N. (2025). Early Childhood Teachers’ Use of Pyramid Model Practices. Journal of Early Intervention, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10538151251338054
Walton, E., & Engelbrecht, P. (2022). Inclusive Education in South Africa: Path Dependencies and Emergences. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 28(10), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2022.2061608
Woolfson, L. M. (2024). Is inclusive education for children with special educational needs and disabilities an impossible dream? British Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12701
