ASSESSING THE CAPACITY OF BASIC SCHOOL TEACHERS IN THE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION POLICY FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITY IN NABDAM DISTRICT OF UPPER EAST REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

The focus of the study is on teachers' capacity towards the Inclusive Education policy for children with disability in basic schools in the Nabdam District, in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The literature reviewed included the concept and development of inclusive Education. The benefits of inclusive education as well as the challenges of Inclusive Education. Two hundred and three (203) respondents were selected using stratified sampling technique, whiles eight (8) Senior Officers in the Nabdam Education Office were purposively selected. Qualitative approach was adopted but triangulated with quantitative methods where Statistical Product for Service Solutions was used to analyse the questionnaires. Charts and tables were used for the analyses of the quantitative data. The study found that though 77.3% of teachers in Nabdam had been trained on Inclusive Education (IE), they do not have the skills to teach Children with Disability. The study further found that teachers lack teaching and learning materials for the Inclusive Education. It was also found that large class sizes affect the Inclusive Education. Moreover, the study found that parents do not collaborate with teachers towards the Inclusive Education policy implementation. Conclusively, teachers face challenges in Nabdam towards Inclusive Education implementation though they have been trained. The study recommends that a policy review to include all the stakeholders (parents, teachers, pupils and NGOs) in basic education, provisioning of TLMs and effective training of teachers should be conducted by Government or NGOs achieve the target of SDG in basic education.