Where is Ubuntu in competitive South African schools? An inclusive education perspective

Abstract

The African philosophical concept of Ubuntu is the sense of togetherness and collaboration, and viewing people as being one part of a larger whole. In other words, the success of one should be the success of all. The correlation between the concept of Ubuntu dovetails with the cooperative and collaborative values of an inclusive education system, clearly enshrined in our Constitution. However, many South African schools are characterised by a competitive value system encouraging learners to outperform their peers academically, subsequently rewarding the learners' individualistic efforts to do so. These rewarded learners, generally comprising less than ten percent of the school population, experience privilege and distinction; their efforts are valued and celebrated. Their award-winning status allows them opportunities both within and post-school that are not afforded to the rest of the learners. The success of some learners occurs at the expense of other learners. Thus, there is a disjuncture between our sense of Ubuntu in proclaiming inclusivity on paper, yet in practice we continue to promote competitive values at our schools. This paper questions our double standards as educationists and explores ways in which we could reduce academic competitiveness to create schooling contexts that are conducive in realising inclusive education.