Challenges Facing Inclusive
Education in Regular Primary Schools in Kenya
By Anthony M. Wanjohi
1.0 Introduction
“Disability
is not Inability” these are words of encouragement for those who perceive that
people with physical challenges are helpless and cannot do what others do
without the challenges. The debate of including them into society without being
stigmatized has been discussed internationally by the UDHR (1949), UNGAC (1959)
and the UNCRC (1989) all acknowledged education as a human right and enacted
some of the articles to include them in every social sector.
This
paper explores the challenges facing inclusive education in regular schools.
The paper is organized into the following sections: Background to the study, which has two parts,
namely the rationale for inclusive education and types of inclusive education.
This section is followed by challenges facing inclusive education. These
challenges are each discussed briefly.
2.0
Background Information
Inclusion
in the context of education is the practice, in which students with special
educational needs spend most or all of their time with non-disabled students.
UNESCO, 2001 developed a language of inclusion for the disabled into the system
of education by stating the following:
Inclusive
education starts from the belief that the right to education is a basic human right and the foundation for a more
just society.
Inclusive
education takes the Education for All (EFA) agenda forward by finding was of
enabling schools to serve all children in their communities as part of an
inclusive education system.
Inclusive
education is concerned with all learners, with a focus on those who have
traditionally been excluded from educational opportunities – such as learners
with special needs and disabilities, children from ethnic and linguistic
minorities
Inclusion
is about the child’s right to participate and the school’s duty to accept the
child and to rejects the use of special schools or classrooms to separate
students with disabilities from students without disabilities. A premium is
placed upon full participation by students with disabilities and upon respect
for their social, civil, and educational rights.
Inclusive
schools no longer distinguish between "general education" and
"special education" programs; instead, the school is restructured so
that all students learn together.(Scheyes
et al,1996).
All
students can learn and benefit from education and schools should adapt to the
needs of students, rather than students adapting to the needs of the school.
Individual differences between students are a source of richness and diversity,
and not a problem. The diversity of needs and pace of development of students
are addressed through a wide and flexible range of responses (so long as those
responses do not include removing a student with a disability from a general
education classroom).
Inclusive
education is a process of removing barriers and enabling all students,
including previously excluded groups, to learn and participate effectively
within general school systems.
2.1 Rationale for inclusion
The
1983 World Program of Action Concerning Disabled Persons states under Article
120 that all Member States agree that education for persons with disabilities
should be carried out, as far as possible, within the general school system.
A few years later, the
1989 Convention on the
Rights of the Child
acknowledged the special needs
of children with
disabilities, and stated
that these children
must be guaranteed
“effective access to education
in a manner
conducive to the
child achieving the fullest possible social integration and individual
development...” Such notion was further asserted by the 1990 World Declaration
on Education for All, by the
1993 Standard Rules
on the Equalization
of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities, and by the
1994 UNESCO meeting (Piccione, 2000). A second key
argument is that everybody benefits from inclusion. Advocates say that there
are many children and young people who don't fit in (or feel as though they
don't), and that a school that fully includes all disabled students feels
welcoming to all. Moreover, at least one author has studied the impact a
diversified student body has on the general education population and has
concluded that students with mental retardation who spend time among their
peers show an increase in social skills and academic proficiency (Trainer,1991)
2.2 Types of inclusive Education
Inclusive
education is divided into two: Regular
inclusion or partial inclusion and Full inclusion.
Regular
or partial inclusion: Students with special needs are educated in regular
classes for nearly all of the day, or at least for more than half of the day.
Whenever possible, the students receive any additional help or special
instruction in the general classroom. Most specialized services are provided
outside a regular classroom, particularly if these services require special
equipment or might be disruptive to the rest of the class (such as speech
therapy), and students are pulled out for these services. The student
occasionally leaves the regular classroom to attend smaller, more intensive
instructional sessions in a resource room, or to receive other related
services, such as speech and language therapy, occupational and/or physical
therapy, and social work. This approach can be very similar to many
mainstreaming practices. (Bowe, 2005)
Full
inclusion: It is the complete integration of the student with a special need
into the general education classroom. The student receives all special services
in the same general education classroom as all other students. This is very
common with students whose needs are easily met in a classroom, such as a
modification that allows the student more time to complete written assignments.
Here the students classified as disabled remain in general classrooms virtually
all the time. (Bowe, 2005) Related services are provided via "push
in," meaning that professionals enter the classroom and deliver assistance
there
Schools
that practice full inclusion for all students have no separate special
education classes. However, full inclusion of all students, regardless of their
particular needs, is a controversial practice, and it is not widely applied
(Hastings,2003). It is more common for local
educational agencies to provide a variety of settings, from special classrooms
to mainstreaming to inclusion, and to assign students to the system that seems
most likely to help the student achieve his or her individual educational
goals.
3.0 Statement of the Problem
Today,
the debate about inclusive education has been lessened and the society is
trying to digest into the system the involvement of the physically challenged
students the normal system of education. They are also trying to fight to
stigmatization in order to create an opportunity for all in education. Despite
all these efforts there are still some challenges that affect inclusive
education in our society from international level to local level. This paper
briefly examines these challenges and highlights strategies that can be
undertaken to resolve these issues.
4.0 Challenges facing Inclusive
Education
Efforts
involved in implementation of Inclusive Education have got challenges that are
facing them. These challenges are divided into various parts and they include;
4.1 Beliefs / Attitude
These
are perceptions of the people in our environment. Responses to this inhuman
treatment often elicited a charitable or protective response which sometimes
led to improvements in the material circumstances of disabled people. Disabled
people were objects of charity or asylum and subjected to patronizing attitudes
based on the non-disabled person’s view of them as not fully human or as
incapable of living ordinary lives
They
can further be classified as:
a)
Society
It
was believed that disabled people brought bad luck because they had been cursed
or had had a spell placed upon them by witchcraft. They were often viewed as
not fully human or possessed by evil spirits. This made it easy to make fun of
or ridicule them. They became the butt of jokes and symbols for all the ills of
the world. Clowns, court jesters and ‘freak shows’ are illustrations of this.
There
are many cultural and literary manifestations of this thinking which are still
being reinforced in myths, legend or literature Even
modern films, comics and television programmes draw upon and reinforce these
negative stereotypes. Stereotypes are bundles of negative and untrue
perceptions which often precondition how people treat and respond to disabled
people.
b)
Economically
Financing
and support of educational services for students with special needs is a
primary concern for all countries, regardless of available resources. Yet a
growing body of research asserts that inclusive education is not only cost
efficient, but also cost effective, and that equity is the way to excellence.
The research seems to promise increased achievement and performance for all
learners. Within education, countries are increasingly realizing the
inefficiency of multiple systems of administration, organizational structures
and services, and that special schools are a financially unrealistic option.
For example (OECD, 1994) report estimates that the average cost of putting
students with special educational needs in segregated placements is seven to
nine times higher than educating them in general classrooms.
c)
Teachers
According
to Agbenyega (2006), many regular education teachers
who feel unprepared and fearful to work with learners with disabilities in
regular classes display frustration, anger and negative attitude toward
inclusive education because they believe it could lead to lower academic
standards (Gary, 1997; Tiegerman-Farber, 1998).
Additionally, access to resources and specialist support affects teacher
confidence and attitudes toward inclusive education (Bennett, 1997; Katzenmeyer, 1997). The teachers’ beliefs about inclusion
suggest that they do not regard students with disabilities, particularly those
with sensory impairments as belonging in regular classes and would rather
prefer them being educated in existing special schools, Teachers also believed
that including students with disabilities limits the amount of teaching work
they could do thereby resulting in incompletion of the syllabuses, teachers
also believed that if students with disabilities were included in regular classes
it would affect the academic performance of their peers without disabilities,
Teachers perceived that their professional knowledge and skills were inadequate
to effectively teach students with disabilities in regular schools. Further,
the teachers expressed fear and concern, that because they do not have the
required knowledge and expertise to teach students with disabilities who are
included in their regular classes; it is contributing to a reduction in the
academic success of their schools.
4.2
Inadequate resources
Apart
from teachers’ negative beliefs about inclusion and concern for their
professional competency to practice inclusive education, resource issues also
drew much concern for both teacher groups. Resource issues addressed physical
aspects such as inaccessible classrooms to students in a wheel chair,
overcrowded classrooms; materials such as Braille and large prints: Further,
teachers expressed concern about the lack of support from professionals with
expertise such as peripatetic teachers or those with expertise in sign language
and Braille as well as general special education experts: Teachers
overwhelmingly believe that inclusive education is impossible without
addressing their needs for specialist resources. Overall belief is that without
sufficient resources and support inclusive education was not possible and
doomed.
4.3
Inadequate Training
Qualified teachers
know that classroom
needs must be
approached “from a Curricular standpoint”, in which
difficulties are defined depending on each specifictask
and activity, and on classroom conditions. Most teachers are not qualified to
handle the students with physical challenges
4.4
Learner Based Challenges
Ordinary
learners and challenged learners are different modes of understanding thus
making one ahead of the other. The challenged students are not fast learners
thus need more attention when handling them.
Inaccessible
environment, lack of support from teachers and school make most of the learners
repeat or drop out of school thus not boosting their morale.
5.0
Conclusion
Even
though we still have a long way to go, Inclusive Education is POSSIBLE. When
all participants, Governments, NGOs, teachers, students, parents and
communities take action and join their efforts, the goal of achieving equality
of access and opportunities for
children/youth with visual
impairment can start
to become a reality.
References
Agbenyega,
J. (2006). Examining
Teachers’ Concerns and Attitudes to Inclusive Education in Ghana.
Bowe, F.(2005). Making Inclusion Work.
Merrill Education/Prentice Hall.
Hastings. R.P. & Oakford,
S. (2003). Student
teachers' attitudes toward the inclusion of children with special needs.
Educational Psychology, page 23, 87-95
Kavale,
K.A. (2002). Mainstreaming to full
inclusion: From orthogenesis to pathogenesis of an idea. International
Journal of Disability, Development, and Education, page 49, 201-214.
Praisner,
C. L. (2003). Attitudes
of elementary school principals toward the inclusion of students with
disabilities. Exceptional Children, page 69, 135-145.
Scheyer
et al. (1996). The Inclusive Classroom Teacher. Created Materials,
Inc.
Trainer, M. (1991).
Differences in common: Straight talk on mental
retardation, Down syndrome, and life. Rockville, MD" Woodbine house.Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1949)
UNESCO (1994).
Salamanca Statement and
Framework for Action.
UN (1989).
United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Suggested Citation in APA
Wanjohi,
A.M. (2010). Challenges
Facing Inclusive Education in Regular Primary Schools in Kenya. KENPRO
Publications.Available online at http://www.kenpro.org/papers/challenges-facing-inclusive-education-in-kenya.htm
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