Meritocracy and citizenship education of learners with mild intellectual disabilities in post-apartheid South African schools

Abstract

Worldwide, meritocracy serves as one of the key aims of education in embodying justice by emphasising individual intelligence, skills and talents to validate individuals’ success. In context, learners with mild-intellectual disabilities primarily require education to represent justice by developing their intellectual and adaptive functions in achieving success. The paper identifies the problem: the South African Schools Act (No. 84 of 1996) heavily embraces a meritocratic liberal-based citizenship education in educating learners with mild-intellectual disabilities which stifles a civic republican-based citizenship education approach to their intellectual and adaptive development. The paper adopts Tomaševski’s 4A-scheme framework, intent on achieving human rights in education. Accordingly, the Act fosters inequality compromising educational availability, encourages individual achievement impeding accessibility, favours market-based models denouncing acceptability and promotes a rewards system impeding adaptability. A civic republican-based citizenship education is presented as a panacea to reframe the embrace of meritocracy in educating learners with mild-intellectual disabilities in schools.