Education White Paper 6 is the guiding policy to ensure inclusive teaching and learning practices at all schools in South Africa. A flexible curriculum to address diverse learning needs, taking into consideration learners’ socio-ecological circumstances, is one of the fundamental principles of this policy. Teachers are central in ensuring that classroom practices, which include teaching strategies and assessment approaches, are flexible enough to accommodate all learners. The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of teachers in a specific secondary school community regarding the flexible implementation of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS). A qualitative approach was employed using individual interviews. The findings indicated that teachers in this study believe that the flexible implementation of CAPS will be beneficial for learner empowerment, inclusion, applying differentiation and cooperative learning strategies, a possible decrease in the drop-out rate and the promotion of a curriculum that includes more practical subjects. However, they asserted that its effective implementation is hampered by too many challenges including the large number of learners in classrooms, a lack of resources and support, inadequate training, illiteracy levels of learners, as well as their learning capabilities, the Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT), parental involvement, social issues, teachers’ administrative workload, a rigid syllabus, and a predominant focus on pass percentages.

Keywords: Flexible curriculum, Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS), inclusive education, curriculum.