Knowledge and Preparedness of teachers in Ejisu-Juaben Municipality on Inclusive Education

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Date
AUGUST 2015
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Abstract
Education is a right for all learners and should be made accessible to all learners including special need children. With the introduction of the pilot inclusive education in Ghana, many children with special needs have been admitted in some of these schools together with their peers without special needs and are been taught by general school teachers. For general education teachers to effectively include special needs children in their classrooms, their attitude about inclusion should be positive. It is in the light of this that this research is being embarked on to ascertain general teachers’ knowledge and preparedness for inclusive. The study involved all the five pilot inclusive schools in Ejisu-Juaben Municipality. This case study design utilized qualitative data collection method, and a purposive sampling technique was used to select 20 respondents comprising five head teachers, five resource teachers and ten (10) classroom teachers for in-depth interview. The findings of the study indicated that generally, the teachers had no adequate knowledge of inclusive education before the programme was introduced. Besides this major finding, the study also revealed other setbacks to inclusion such as inadequate preparation on the part of regular teachers and negative attitude of teachers towards special needs children. In conclusion, it is recommended that teachers should have more observation training on teaching special needs children in an inclusive setting to enable them to handle all categories of disabilities in the classrooms effectively. Also, Ghana Education Service, (GES) in collaboration with special education division, should organize workshops, seminars forums as well as symposiums aimed at establishing good rapport and collaboration among the stakeholders of inclusive education. Furthermore, it is suggested that consistent in-service training should be organized for all regular teachers in schools practicing inclusion on pilot bases to refresh their knowledge and equip them with best inclusive practices to enable them manage the pupils.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Community Health, College of Health Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Disability, Rehabilitation and Development), 2015
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