A child’s best interests are of paramount importance in every matter concerning the child is the much applauded directive in the South African Constitution (SA, 1996: section 8(2); hereafter Constitution). This sounds so reassuring, as if guaranteeing, at the very least, successful education during the compulsory school years of learners. To ensure the learners’ best interests, much emphasis has recently been placed on the legal duties and liabilities of South African School Governing Bodies as well as those of educators (De Waal, 2000), but no emphasis has as yet fallen on an important question in this regard: ARE THE BEST INTERESTS OF LEARNERS ADDRESSED BY THE POLICY OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION?While sections 1.5 and 1.6 in the Green Paper (1999) set the ideal of recognizing, addressing and preventing learning difficulties and exclusion and developing a system which accommodates and respects diversity, the reality of inclusive education at school level calls for urgent consideration. The objective of this paper is, amongst other things, to answer the following questions:

• What do law and policy (“theory”) provide regarding inclusive education and what is the practice (praxis) regarding inclusive education in South Africa?
• How do role players in inclusive education perceive the best interests of the learners?
• Does inclusive education further the best interests of all learners?

The paper will report on both a literature review (of law, policy and practice regarding inclusive education) and data gathered through qualitative research at ten schools (including schools catering specifically for learners who experience barriers to learning and “ordinary public schools” that have enrolled such learners).