Extent of success in implementation of inclusion of special needs children’s access and participation in pre schools, in Kericho county

Abstract

The world conference on special needs education in Salamanca which was adopted for action on special needs education set the policy agenda for inclusive education on global basis. UNESCO 1994 affirmed that inclusive education challenges on exclusionary practices in education and prioritizes education as a right of all children regardless of their background or disability and aims at providing good quality education and community based education for all. Sessional paper No.1 of 2005 was launched by ministry of education and it offers basic policy framework for education with emphasis on the correction of existing inequalities and enhancement of development of capacity of SNE professionals and other services. Basic Education Act 2013 in its guiding principles propose progressive inclusion, non-discrimination, encouragement and protection of the marginalized, persons with disabilities as well as those with special educational needs and provisions of appropriate human resource funds, equipments, infrastructure and related resources that meet the needs of every child in basic education as well as the right of the child to free and compulsory education will be in consultation with the National Education Board and relevant County Education Board provided in the establishment of pre primary, Primary, secondary, mobile and adult continuing education within reasonably assessable distance within the county as well as special and integrated schools for learners with disability. The problem is that inequalities and disparities in accessing quality education among learners with special educational needs are still existent. The study was guided by the following objectives. To find out the extent to which children with special educational needs are enrolled in preschools of study as per the Basic Educational policy, establish the available facilities in the inclusive schools for use by children with special educational needs and to establish whether teachers are specially trained in handling of children with educational needs. Lev Vygotsky‟s socio-cultural Theory informed this study. A case study of two selected inclusive preschools in Kericho County was used. The case study employed purposive sample of two public pre-schools in Kericho County was used. The case study employed purposive sample of two public pre-schools. The respondents included: Two head teachers, general curriculum teachers who handle these children, resource teachers and Educational Assessment Resource centre officers. Interviews were conducted with the EARC officers, questionnaires given to head teachers and teachers and observation checklist was used by the researcher as well as photo and video taking with permission from the institution. Only 8% of the total population of pre-school children has special educational needs compared to the estimated percentage of special needs children in Kenya. All schools reported inadequate facilities and resources as well as irrelevance of the available ones hence the need of improvisation and general curriculum teachers lack basic skills in handling learners with special educational needs thus the two schools experience shortage of teachers trained in special Educational needs and those present are unable to handle individual educational needs of these children making inclusion an illusion. The researcher recommends that more sensitization on special educational needs should be carried out, percentage of teachers trained on SNE should be boosted and special school allowance to be offered to teachers in inclusive schools to motivate then and that both the National Government and county government as well as the NGO‟s should chip in to assist the inclusion initiative in terms of facilities and equipments required to make inclusion a reality.