The Management of learners who experience barriers to learning in mainstream Primary Schools in the Eastern Cape

Much emphasis has been placed on democracy, equality and human rights since the dawn of the democratic South Africa in 1994. Efforts to align the South African education system with the democratic principles of the Constitution, not only in terms of eradicating past racial divides, but also in terms of accessibility to learners who experience barriers to learning are eminent. The South African Government issued various policies to ensure quality, equitable and accessible education for all, irrespective of ability. Theoretically, no learner should therefore being discriminated against on any basis. In practice, however, thousands of learners, especially those who experience barriers to learning are denied the opportunity to receive meaningful development opportunities in many mainstream primary schools, resulting in their early drop out from school without having acquired the basic skills and knowledge to become self sustainable members of their communities. With the adoption of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model as theoretical framework for this study, the primary aim of this qualitative investigation was to investigate and describe how effective learners who experience barriers to learning are managed in mainstream primary schools and to develop a framework for the creation of more sustainable management systems to ensure that the needs of all learners are met. The findings of the empirical investigation revealed that most learners who experience barriers to learning are currently not managed effectively in mainstream primary schools due to factors situated across the whole education system, to the detriment of learners who experience barriers to learning. Based on the findings of the empirical investigation, this study proposes a framework which will ensure the effective management of learners who experience barriers to learning in mainstream primary schools. The framework include recommendations to be implemented across all layers of the ecological system