The impact of school management on inclusive education provision in full-service schools in North West Province

Abstract

The role of school management on the qualitative provision of inclusive education in designated full-service schools in North West Province is vital for optimum accommodation of learner diversity in ordinary mainstream primary schools. The school management of designated primary schools are assigned with the task of ensuring that inclusive education policy and practices are adopted and implemented by all stakeholders as prescribed by policy in their respective schools. This dissertation sought to investigate at a micro perspective the impact of school managers as individual employees and their response to the new inclusive education system in their schools. The study also identifies factors that facilitate or hinder their role. A qualitative approach and the case study design were applied in this study. Five schools were purposefully selected and total of 40 participants were involved. The participants include five principals, five deputy principals, ten heads of departments (HoDs) and 20 members of the SBST. Data were collected by conducting individual interviews for principals and deputy principals and focus group interviews for HoDs and members of SBST. The findings reveal that the school managers, SBST and stakeholders like parents do not yet understand the reasons behind expansion of inclusive education in their schools. The study reveals that the school management are still finding it difficult to fulfil their role and responsibility. This is owing to numerous challenges emanating from inadequate support from district based support teams or departmental officials, pedagogical barriers, systemic barriers, insufficient staffing, lack of human resource development through trainings, infrastructure challenges, resistance to policy such as SIAS and lack of knowledge of assistive devices. Subsequent to that, literature review reveals that studies on implementing inclusive education in schools focus largely on the plight and role of teachers and that little attention was paid to the role of school management on the provision of inclusive education. To enhance the impact of school management on provision of inclusive education and to address prohibiting factors noted form the findings, the study recommends to the department an intensive and structured capacity building programmes for departmental officials, school management, curriculum specialists, senior managers with specific reference to inclusive teaching strategies, admission within protocol of SIAS policy, and curriculum differentiation using assistive devices. A proposed model to improve the impact of school management on the provision of inclusive education with specific reference to administer admission within SIAS protocol is presented.