Determinants of the Implementation of Inclusive Education in Public Secondary Schools in Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

Education empowers citizens and hence reduces poverty by enhancing livelihood. Globally, 77 million children are out of education and 25.7 million (33.4%) are those with disabilities. In Kenya 1,504 (0.48 %) Students with Disabilities of 315,000 in public secondary schools are in Inclusive Education programme. Baseline survey in Bungoma County between 2013 and 2016 indicated that only 107(0.07%) Students with Visual impairments and physical challenges are in Inclusive Education programmes compared with total of 39,122 students with disabilities who are out of school. Therefore, this means that very few Students with Disabilities (SWDs) are admitted in public secondary schools in Bungoma County implying that 39,015 (99.93%) may not have been accessing public secondary school education. The purpose of the study was to establish the influence of extra funding, human resource, physical resources, students with disabilities and regular students as determinants of implementation of Inclusive Education in public secondary schools in Bungoma County, Kenya. The study objectives were; to determine the influence of finance on implementation of Inclusive Education (IE); to determine the influence of the human resources on implementation of IE; to establish the influence of physical resources available for the implementation of IE, and to establish the influence of SWD and RS in the implementation of IE. This study was based on Social Model of Disability, as discussed by Rieser (2002) and the conceptual framework that showed the relationships between independent variables namely finance, human resources, and physical resources, influences of SWDs and Regular Students towards the implementation of IE as dependent variable. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The study population included 1 Senior Assistant Director of Education, 1 County Director of Education (CDE), 1 County Education Officer in charge of Special Needs Education (CEOCSNE), 3 Principals of Public Secondary Schools (PPSS), 10 Special Education Teachers (SET), 130 Regular Teachers (RT), 107 SWDs, and 2,348 Regular Students (RS). Sample size through simple random sampling comprised 122 RT, 54 SWDs and 350 RS. Saturated sampling technique selected 1 SADE, 1 CED, 1 CEOSNE, 3 PPSS, and 10 SETs. Research Instruments included Questionnaires, observation guide, interview schedule and document analysis guide. To ensure face and content validity of research instruments, advice from experts in the department of Special Needs Education and Rehabilitation (SNER) was used. Reliability of instruments was established through Pearson correlation. Reliability coefficient for Regular Teachers was r =0.78, Special Education Teachers r = 0.84, Students with Disabilities r =0.89, and Regular Students r=0.85. These were high enough to meet conditions of reliability because they are above the recommended value of r = 0.7. The study established that extra funding by MOEST accounted for 60.8% of the variance in implementation of Inclusive Education, Human Resource accounted for 18.9%, and Physical Resources also accounted for 18.9%, Students with Disabilities 37.4% and regular students 30.7%. This means that the main determinants of implementation of Inclusive Education were extra funding by Ministry of Education Science and Technology, Students with Disabilities and Regular Students. This study therefore concluded that extr a funding, Students with Disabilities, Regular Students, physical resources and Human Resources were determinants of implementation of inclusive education in public secondary schools in Bungoma County. The study recommended that extra funding be increased and the necessary physical resources be made available for effective implementation of Inclusive Education.