Assessing the School Agenda on Inclusive Education: What is the Intake of South African Teachers?

The South African education system has been perceived to have deteriorated to lower rates in the world. While there might be various factors at play, such as teacher workloads and continuously changing curriculum policies, for instance, one wonders how teachers are supported for the effective implementation of inclusive education (IE) for the benefit of learners with barriers (LEBLs) who are in mainstream schools (MSs). The study thus adopted and engaged a qualitative approach and case study design for data collection, from a small purposefully selected sample of 5 principals and 15 teachers through individual interviews. The paper reports on thematically analysed data, which reveal that: majority of principals and teachers were not proficient enough with IE policy documents. Furthermore, they did not receive sufficient training on the IE policy, nor were they oriented on how to cope with high workloads. This paper advocates the Teacher Support Inclusive Collaboration (TESIC) Model, which can assist in IE implementation. Keywords: South African Education System, MSs, TESIC Model, Inclusive Education (IE), LEBLs, Support, Commitment.