Towards an inclusive pedagogy in South Africa

Very little has been done concerning mass education since it was introduced for working class children in developing and poor countries. Bowles and Gintis (1976) warned us that schools reproduce the status quo. When developed nations plan they plan for the middle class because the middle class are in the majority. Developing countries, following this model also plan for the middle class but the majority of children in developing countries are working class. This action further marginalises the working class. Whilst this paper is contradictory in suggesting a first world inclusive education model I am of the view that you cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is enormous merit in following the inclusion model since it holds promise for working class children and vulnerable children who constitute the majority population in developing countries schooling systems. Developing countries should plan on the basis of the specificities of their contexts and continue to refine theories and models with a view to ensuring that more children graduate from school.

developing countries are working class.
This action further marginalises the working class. Whilst this paper is contradictory in suggesting a first world inclusive education model I am of the view that you cannot throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is enormous merit in following the inclusion model since it holds promise for working class children and vulnerable children who constitute the majority population in developing countries schooling systems. Developing countries should plan on the basis of the specificities of their contexts and continue to refine theories and models with a view to ensuring that more children graduate from school.
Working class children will struggle in the contemporary world because of the politicisation of education which results in a performative culture.
With the Neo-Liberal paradigm, working class children run the risk of remaining in the margins of society. Modern day bureaucracies are victims of the performance culture that is promoted by the World Bank other supra national organisations.

What are developing countries?
Developing nations are those with low, lower middle or upper middle incomes. Professional make up 5.5%, with the gap between the two groups widening every quarter. South Africa also has an incredibly high unemployment rate, with 27.7% of workers out of a joband by the broader definition putting it over 36%.
We have largely followed developed models of education which have a totally different pupil composition. Planning for the poor and working class can be done effectively if we use the concept inclusive education as a framework of thinking and practice. The underlying principal of inclusive education is to examine what barriers exist in the system that prevent learners from learning and address those barriers in planning rather than psychologizing failure. There is scope in education during the formative years to take into consideration different intelligences that learners possess.
In the current system anyone who fails is regarded as having deficiencies.
The argument of inclusive education is what barriers exist in the system that prevents success and each of these barriers requires an assessment in order to create the conditions for learners to learn.
The main thrust of this paper is that developing countries should embrace an inclusive ideology that results in radical changes to theory, assumptions,   Thirdly, it is quite apparent that apartheid education had firmly establishes structures for mainstream education and special education which included separate personnel, curricula and facilities. Anyone who deviated from the norm was regarded as the other in the schooling system. Victim blaming and the psychologization of school failure was a central feature of education during the apartheid era and special education. Schools and the curriculum was used as the primary means of reproducing the status quo.
The medical model was the dominant model and the focus of the cause of most learning challenges were located within the learner. The entire focus 9 was on the individual who was viewed as helpless and dependent. The individual deficit theory (medical model) viewed the person as in need of treatment and assistance outside regular education. In conclusion it is critical that all barriers to learning become the core of planning and interrogation to create space and possibilities for access. This is including the following barriers: Language, Negative Attitudes, Socio-economic factors, Parental attitude, Lack of appropriate and clear policy, Access to the curriculum, an Lack of access to a print culture.