Influence of Head Teachers’ Administrative Strategies on Implementation of Inclusive Education in Integrated Public Primary Schools in South Rift Region, Kenya

Abstract

Globally there is unanimity that every child has rights to education irrespective of existing personal disability status. As a result, the educational organisations set out to realise accessibility, suitability, and efficiency of learning processes within the community. This review analyzed the influence of school heads’ administrative strategies on the implementation of inclusive education in integrated public primary schools in the South Rift Region, Kenya. The study was guided by the following objectives: To determine the influence of head teachers’ collaboration with parents on implementation of Inclusive education in integrated primary schools in the South Rift Valley region in Kenya; to examine the influence of head teachers’ support for teachers training on implementation of inclusive education in integrated public primary schools; to evaluate the influence of head teachers’ allocated budget for resource acquisition and maintenance on implementation of inclusive education in integrated public primary schools; to establish the influence of head teachers’ collaboration with faith-based organizations on the implementation of Inclusive education in integrated primary schools in South Rift Valley, to establish the influence of head teachers’ collaboration with external funding agencies on the implementation of inclusive education in integrated primary schools in South Rift Valley region in Kenya. . Anchoring the study was the systems theory by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1965), supported by a descriptive research design. The study population comprised of 25 primary school heads, 121 special needs teachers teaching in integrated schools, 17 Sub County Directors of Education, 300 representatives of school management committees, and 490 parents’ association's representatives from the 25 integrated schools in South Rift Region. The researcher used Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table for sample size determination to obtain 25 schools and 25 headteachers. Two special needs education teachers were randomly selected from each school; in addition to parents, committee representatives and parent representatives (150). Data was collected using questionnaires for head teachers and special needs teachers, while an interview schedule was used to collect data from Sub County Director of Education, County Quality Assurance and standards Officer (QASOs), members of School Management Committee (SMCs) and parents’ representative. The supervisor’s views and opinions were sought to improve the content validity. The reliability index was 0.7. Descriptive such as percentages and frequency distribution, and inferential statistics was done using correlation and regression analysis and then findings presented in statistical tables statistics were used to analyze significant data and presented using tables. Results from this study indicated that the influence of head teachers’ collaboration with parents indicated R Square of 0.001implying that this objective determines 1% variation in the Implementation of Inclusive education in integrated public primary schools in the South Rift Region. This could imply collaboration with parents in matters of inclusive education is not practice or parents have no funding ability. Support for teacher training R square 0.454 that is 45.4% variation, head teacher’s allocated budget R Square 0.576 that is 57.6% which is attributed to funding’s from all stakeholders. Collaboration with faith-based and external funding agencies determines 18%and 16.4%respectively variation in the implementation of inclusive education, implying weak linkages. The study recommends that head teacher needs to raise parents/ community awareness on their role and explore more collaborative partnerships with financial institutions, philanthropists among others to enhance implementation of inclusive education.