Opinions of Primary School Teachers Towards Inclusive Education in Central Kenya

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the opinions of primary school teachers towards inclusive education in Central Kenya. The sample size (N=500) represented all the teachers in the study area pursuing a diploma course in special needs education at Kenya Institute of Special education (KISE) through distance learning, and therefore, inferential statistics was not necessary. Teachers’ opinions were reported by questionnaire designed specifically for this study while from this instrument answers to the six research questions were also sought. Data analysis in this study was conducted using the statistical analysis software (Statistical Package for Social Science, SPSS version 11.5 for windows). The specific analysis included the descriptive data and cross-tabulation yielding the chi-square statistics. All the data were reported in form of descriptive Statistics-percentages, frequencies and mode where applicable. The results of the study revealed that teachers’ perceptions towards inclusive education in Central Kenya were positive. In addition, respondents strongly agreed that in order to prepare teachers for inclusive education, in-service training programs were needed (M=4.64). Further, they expressed the view that students with special needs had the right to receive education in mainstream classes (M=4.49). However, the statement that the country was not ready for inclusive education was rated low (M=2.44) implying that respondents disagreed with the statement.

Keywords: Opinions, Inclusion, Inclusive education, Special Needs Education, Teachers