Attitude of Public Primary School Pupils to Inclusive Education Practice in Umuahia Town

Abstract

The importance of the primary school as the place for laying the foundation for essential skills acquisition for national growth and development is not in doubt. However, making this opportunity available to all children from rich or poor homes, able or disable is still a point in contention in most less developed nations such as Nigeria. As can be found in literature, most developed nations have taken steps to accommodate practically all children in school; but most of developing nations, particularly African nations are yet to take decisive steps in this regard. In Nigeria, the implementation of inclusive education is still at the proposal stage. There is therefore the need to find out the attitudes of school children to inclusive education practice. This study therefore investigated the attitudes of primary school children to inclusive education practice in Nigerian primary schools. The study involved 240 primaries three and four school boys and girls in equal proportion, who were drawn through stratified sampling technique from four equivalent mixed gender primary schools in a Nigerian state capital in South –Eastern Nigeria. Data collection employed a researcher constructed and validated attitude scale for primary school pupils. Twenty items were used in the test, with coefficient alpha .78. Data obtained was analyzed using analysis of variance technique. The results reveal that the class of pupils significantly influenced the attitudes of children to inclusive education practice: [F _{(1, 240)} = 6.269; p < .05].   Both school and gender did not significantly influence pupils’ attitude to inclusive education. School by gender interactions were however significant: [F _{(3, 240)} = 4.060); p< .05]. It was recommended that school children should be enlightened on the needs and benefits of inclusive education before the implementation of the policy.

Keywords: Attitude; primary school; Inclusive education; pupils; children