Intellectual Disability in Inclusive Education in South Africa: Curriculum Challenges

The move toward inclusive education is a global one which has been in process for over 25 years since the Salamanca statement in 1994. The approach has been adopted in many countries, both high and low income with varying degrees of policy development and legal frameworks to ensure effective implementation. South Africa, a middle-income country with high levels of inequality, has engaged seriously in developing enabling policy. In this study, I will examine how inclusive education policy in South Africa considers intellectual disability (ID) as one of many barriers to learning within the related legislation, guidelines, and curriculum. I will then look at two critical and related events in education for ID in South Africa. The first is the legal process whereby the right to education for children with severe-to-profound ID was established, and the second is the development of three different curricula in South Africa for children with mild-to-moderate, severe, and severe-to-profound ID, respectively. I will conclude with some consideration of how inclusion policy deals with the problem of curriculum which is a critical one for ID.