Management strategies for the implementation of an inclusive education system for learners with special educational needs

D.Ed. (Educational Management)The present government committed itself to the principle of placement of learners with special needs into mainstream education as a long-term goal where it is not immediately possible. The researcher has found in the line of his present functions in the Mpumalanga Education Department that the existing management practice does not make sufficient provision for the inclusion model for all learners in the education system. The above mentioned situation made the research necessary. The objectives of this research were to determine the management needs to implement an inclusive integrated education system for learners with special educational needs in Mpumalanga Province by: - ascertaining the needs and functions of the management of such an inclusive model; and - the further development of findings on management needs into strategies to implement an inclusive model of education for learners with special educational needs in the Mpumalanga Province. The traditional paradigm in which research was done on learners with special educational needs derived from a medical model. The medical model is based on a caurse effect paradigm. The latter implies that a defect is diagnosed in the medical makeup of the child and the child is placed in a learning program to suit his/her defect. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child which was ratified by the South African Government on 16 June 1995, as well as The United Nations..