Practitioners/Teachers 

'There is a critical need to confront an historical assumption in our country that there are two distinct categories of learners in our country. That is, those learners who form the majority with ‘ordinary needs’ and a smaller minority of learners with ‘special needs’ who require support or specialised programmes in order to engage in some form of learning process. This assumption, which is also evident in other parts of the world, defined the nature and organisation of educational provision in South Africa prior to 1994. Within this assumption it is recognised that it is primarily the latter category of learners whose educational needs have not been met: they may have been provided with a separate, sometimes inadequate, system of education, they may have been excluded from the system or they may have experienced learning breakdown. Thus the notion of ‘learners with special education needs’ has become a catch-all phrase to categorise all those learners who somehow do not ‘fit into’ the mainstream education system and to describe the complex array of needs which they may have.' [p. 1] 

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