Stakeholders in individual education programmes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the level of participation of stakeholders in the Individual Education of five children with learning difficulties being followed by a facilitator owning a diploma. What is an Individual Educational Programme is explained and it's process outlined. The study was carried out by observing the children in their school environment and consequently interviewing all stakeholders working with these children. The interviews yielded considerable information about the ongoing process of the children's Individual Education programme. Results reveal that a sound basis for teamwork exists together with good relationships among the stakeholders. Three out of the five children under study were found to be too old to be in primary schools and this made their Individual Education Programme even more difficult to plan and implement. All situations revealed that transdisciplinary teamwork is not being put into practice, and thus facilitators are finding the task of implementing the IEP strenuous and not as effective as it should be. Suggestions are presented on how to ameliorate Individual Education for children with learning difficulties. These were put forward by the stakeholders during the interviews. All the data gathered is analysed and discussed in relation with both foreign and local literature dealing with Individual Education.