Inclusive Education and School Culture: Integration Issues for Mainstream Primary Schools in Kenya (original) (raw)
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Journal of Education and Practice, 2015
The philosophy of social inclusion is embedded in current legislation of the convention of child rights and the requirement of equal opportunities for those with disability (Salamanca Statement, 1994). Inclusive education entails taking care of all students including those with special needs like physical, mental or developmental. This paper reports the outcome of a study that assessed the level of teachers’ and school administrators’ preparedness to handle inclusive education. The participants were 140 teachers and 13 Principals of selected secondary schools in Kenya. A questionnaire, interview schedule and classroom observation tool were used for data collection. Data were analysed descriptively and using inferential statistics. Results revealed physical infrastructure and instructional resources are unsuitable to support learners with special needs. There was general lack of teacher training on pedagogy and knowledge on how to handle students with special needs. School management...
Inclusive Education endeavors to makeregular schoolsacccesssible for all school going children without discrimination in line with the EFA goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) No. 2 of Universal Education, the World Declaration on Education for All adopted in Jomtien Thailand (1990) and the World Conference on Special Needs Education in Salamanca Spain (UNESCO, 1994). Currently, most developed Countries have invested heavily in inclusive Education by providing teaching/learning facilities and training manpower. Asia, North East India, and Papua New Guinea have continued to show that inclusive Education does work well. However, most sub-Saharan Africa countries still haven"timplemented inclusive Education. This could attributed to financial constraints and lack of awareness on the need to academically empower children with Special Needs as well as inadequate trained personnel in SNE (UNESCO, 2008). In Kenya for instance, though the Government of Kenya (GoK) has enacted varous pieces of legislation; TheDisability Act 14 of 2012 (GOK, 2008). The ACTstresses that no person/learning institution shall deny admission to a person with a disability by reason only of such disability,the Sessional paper 1 of 2005 which emphasizes the need to have inclusive education (GoK, 2005) and the new Constitution(2010) which envisages inclusive Education infree Basic Education(GoK, 2010; Tororei, 2009), many school age going children are not still enrolled in schools though its expectedthat every child irrespective of gender, disability, and race has a right to attain basic Education in Kenya. To achieve this, there is need to create awareness to school managers on the educational, social and adoptive problems that affect learners with special needs and how to support the program. Hence the need for this study to assess influence ofEducation Management Attitude onImplementation of Inclusive educationfor learners with Disabilities in regular primary schools in Sabatia Sub County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to:establish the attitude of the school managers on Inclusive Education andassess how availability of teaching/learning resources influenced the performance oflearners with disabilitiesin SabatiaSub County; Vihiga County Kenya.The study used mixed methodology design with concurrent triangulation. The target population was 226 which consisted of 105 head teachers, 105 teachers and 16 education officers. The sample was 48 participants composed of 22 head teachers, 22 teachers and 4 education officers. Sample was from 105 schools, composed of 98 public schools and 7 private schools and systematic random sampling was employed. The study used inclusive management theory, and production function input output model theory. Data instruments; questionnaires for teachers and interview schedule for education officers. Piloting was done in three schools involving 10 participants who were not included in the study. Quantitative data was presented in descriptive statistics using tables, means, standard deviation, and percentages. Inferential statistics used where; Pearson, chi-square and ANOVAin SPSS Version 22. The study revealed that there were inadequate teaching and learning materials for learners with special needs althoughmore than three quarters of the teachers held positive attitude towards LSN. It was recommended that there was need for more teacher collaboration, time and how inclusionprograms should take place in school systems and Ministry of Education should provide a special education funds vote in the Free Primary Education to procure adequate teaching/learning resources.
Northwestern Christian University, 2023
The study explored the role of school management leadership teams in developing an inclusive education culture in secondary schools. Inclusive education embraces the notion that the needs of diverse learners can be catered for in mainstream education. The theoretical framework underpinning the study was Social Justice, which is premised on the dimension of recognition and redistribution. Social Justice seeks a more just distribution of resources through reclaiming, appropriating, sustaining, and advancing equity, equality, and fairness in social, economic, educational, and personal dimensions. A Social Constructivist world view will be utilized in this qualitative study. A multiple case study design was made use of where all secondary schools in varied localities but within the same county were used for the case selection. The sample included schools in urban township area, a semi-urban schools and rural setting schools. The data was collected from three focus group interviews; two with school leadership management team, board of management and one with the teachers in each school. Structured and semi-structured questionnaire were used to collect data complemented by observation data for the infrastructure facilities. Thematic data analysis was applied across all cases together. The findings revealed that the school management teams did not have thorough understanding of the inclusive education concept. It was further ascertained that both the leadership and the teachers had not moved towards accepting and non-discrimination of learners with special needs. It was concluded by the researcher that certainly the respondents did not fully support social justice practices. The study explored the challenges facing the school leadership teams, teachers and parents in implementing the policies that support inclusive education and have finally made recommendations on the framework that should be adopted to clarify the role of school management leadership in facilitating inclusivity. The framework posits the need to have visionary, strategic and social justice leadership that focuses on ways to transform the school culture and offer practical guidance for translating the screening, identification, assessment, and support policies that are in practice.
Problems of Management in the 21st Century
This study assessed the effectiveness of the use of selected teaching/learning resources in the implementation of Inclusive Education (I.E) for Special Needs Education (SNE) learners in mainstream primary schools. Focusing on the organisational effectiveness of the school management in meeting the needs of Special needs Learners, research questions explored the following: the availability of the selected teaching/learning resources, effectiveness of the use of available teaching /learning for Inclusive Education, challenges in the use of available teaching/learning resources and possible improvements with regard to the implementation of Inclusive Education for Special Needs Learners in mainstream primary schools. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Out of 150 schools that had integrated Special Needs Learners in Bungoma Count, Kenya, 20% were stratified, proportionately and randomly sampled. Purposive sampling was used to obtain the participants; head teachers, regular, a...
The thrust of this study was to investigate the challenges facing the implementation of inclusive education programme in public secondary schools in Rongo Sub-County, Migori County. The study had two fold objectives, namely (i) To analyze the factors hindering the implementation of the inclusion process for all the school-going-age children and, (ii) to examine the copping strategies to challenges facing implementation special needs education curriculum. It was premised on the classical liberal theory of equal opportunities advanced by Sherman and Wood (1982). The study sample comprised of 5 students with special educational needs per school from all the types of school as boarding, day mixed, yielding a total of 170 students, all school principals, three teachers per school and the Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards Officer .Data was collected using questionnaires for students and teachers and interview schedules for school principals and the District Quality Assurance Standards Officer. The main research instruments used were questionnaires, interview guides and observation checklists. The major findings were that, first, physical and critical teaching learning resources were either inadequate or were quite dilapidated. Secondly, there were inadequate specialized teachers to handle the special needs education curriculum. Third, there were several socioeconomic and cultural variables that constraints effective teaching and learning in most sampled schools. It was recommended that the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of education should put in place adequate and appropriate physical and human resources to enhance the implementation of SNE not only in the in the study locale but all other areas experiencing similar constraints.[257 words].
Journal of Education and Practice, 2014
The thrust of this study was to examine the challenges facing the implementation of inclusive education programme in public primary schools in Nyeri town, Nyeri County. The study had three fold objectives, namely(i) to find out the status of implementation of inclusive education in Nyeri town, Nyeri county;(ii)To analyze the factors hindering the implementation of the inclusion process for all the school-going-age children and, (iii) to establish the plausible solutions to the challenges facing implementation of special needs education curriculum. It was premised on the classical liberal theory of equal opportunities advanced by Sherman and Wood (1982). A descriptive survey research design was utilized in Nyeri County, Kenya. The study employed a stratified random sampling technique to draw 80 respondents comprising 12 headteachers, 60 teachers, and 8 education officials in the study locale. The main research instruments used were questionnaires and observation checklists. The major findings were that, first, physical and critical teaching learning resources were either inadequate or were quite dilapidated. Secondly, there were inadequate specialized teachers to handle the special needs education curriculum. Third, there were several socioeconomic and cultural variables that constraints effective teaching and learning in most sampled schools .It was recommended that since the named constraints were negatively affecting access and quality of education Nyeri County, the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of education should put in place adequate and appropriate physical and human resources to enhance the implementation of SNE not only in the in the study locale but all other areas experiencing similar constraints.[252 words].
Inclusion education advocates the notion that all children have a right to access high quality education and this right should not be affected by disability or any special needs in a child. Inclusion is the approach of integrating all children and their various needs in a similar setting to learn. The purpose of this study was to establish challenges that affect academic performance of children with special needs in an inclusive setting in early childhood educatio n. The study adopted a descriptive research design which embraced both quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze data which was collected from 50 preschool teachers and 10 children with educational special needs. The study established that there is a lack of enough resources, competent teachers, quality time for individual attention and appropriate curriculum for children with special needs. The study concluded that a lack of collaboration from administration and parents, a lack of relevant resources, sufficient time and clear laid down polices on inclusive education is a major challenge of children with special educational needs in early childhood education. The study recommends that there should be a formalized system of support for parents of children with special needs and disabilities, and that the Governmant should intensify monitoring, supervision, and quality control in schools to ensure children with special needs are provided for without discrimination.
2012
The central problem of this study was to investigate and give an understanding of the situation on the ground about the efficiency in inclusive education at the secondary school level in Kenya. The objective of this study was to find out the approaches used in handling students with special needs in integrated regular classrooms to uncover the efficiency and effectiveness of the strategies used in teaching and to evaluate these strategies. The research adopted a case study of secondary schools in Rongo district and targeted all the 34 public secondary schools in the district.• The sample consisted of 5 students with special educational needs per school. This is 10.0% of the target population. The study involved principal, teachers, students with special needs and an interview for the district education officer (DEO). Data was collected using interviews for the principals, questionnaires for the students with special needs and an interview for the education officer (DEO). Data collected was analyzed through the use of statistical package for social science (SPSS). Qualitative data was analyzed by arranging them according to the main objectives, research questions and after that inferences, conclusions and recommendations were drawn according to the research questions and objectives. The study established that school heads were facing major challenges in the implementation of inclusive designs, lack of text books for special education needs, inadequate funds and lack of trained teachers in the required special educational skills as teachers have not been trained on such skills. This has affected efficiency in the provision of inclusive education. .-' v '" 38 3.6.2 Reliability 39 3.7 Data Collection 39 3.8 Data Analysis and Presentation~'" 40 vii ..' '" .42 4.3 The enrolment trends of students with special educational needs in regular schools ..43 4.4 Retention and completion rates of students with special educational needs .46 4.5 Readiness of teachers and students for inclusive education , 53 • 4.6 Training and deployment of teachers .' 61
Journal of Educational and Social Research, 2014
The trends in the educational provision for children with disabilities have since the past two and a half decades continued to focus on their education in the same setting as that for their peers without special needs. The education now being most advocated for children with disability is inclusive education. Despite the many benefits of inclusion, difficulties inherent in this process are major setbacks to wider implementation of inclusive education. Many teachers of regular schools and other stakeholders doubt the workability of the strategy and resist the idea of having children with special needs in regular classrooms. Teachers play a critical role in the workability and effectiveness of inclusive education. However, many at times they are faced by different tasking challenges and that make inclusive education difficult to implement. These challenges are important to understand so that new methods can be implemented to improve the educational situation in the field of special needs education particularly inclusive learning. The study aimed to establish the perceptions of headteachers and teachers on the implementation of inclusive education, in Yatta Division, Machakos County.