Assessing regular teachers’ capacity in educating children with special educational needs in selected pilot inclusive schools in Nzema east municipality

Abstract

This study investigated regular teachers’ capacity in educating children with special educational needs in selected pilot inclusive basic schools in Nzema-East Municipality The study adopted descriptive survey design and used a researcher self-developed questionnaire as the main instrument for data collection. A sample of 90 teachers was selected by the simple random sampling technique from 10 purposively selected basic schools in the Nzema-East Municipality. Data was analyzed using frequency counts involving simple percentages using themes and data from respondents. This was to address the three research questions formulated to guide the study. The findings from the study showed that majority of the teachers reportedly felt they have not acquired capability to adapt the curriculum; instructional strategies, select teaching and learning materials, learning environment to meet the diverse learning needs of children with special needs in their classrooms, Further, close to half of the teachers thought they could not competently use alternative assessment procedures in assessing pupils with special educational needs in inclusive settings. Furthermore, majority of teachers, 62.7%, thought they were not able to collaborate with other professionals to co-teach in order to enhance the learning ability of students with special needs. From the findings it was recommended that intensive in-service training should be organized for teachers. Also, posting of professionally trained special educators to schools on the inclusive education programme should be prioritised to facilitate the implementation of the inclusive education programme in the schools.