INVESTIGATION OF INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS AFFECTING INTEGRATION OF PUPILS WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES IN PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS EMBU WEST SUB-COUNTY, KENYA

Abstract

Development of education has been given great emphasis all over the world. Declaration of Education For All was meant to ensure that every child’s right to education is protected and respected. The free primary education policy in Kenya is meant to provide education to all pupils including those with disabilities. The introduction of Universal Primary Education, accompanied by establishment of Educational Assessment and Resource Centers in the county was expected that pupils with disabilities would meaningfully access quality integrated education. However, this objective has not been realized as planned due to institutional factors such as: physical facilities, support services and teacher behaviors that bar them from obtaining an adequate education and opportunity for full social life. The purpose of the study was to investigate institutional factors that affect integration of pupils with physical disabilities. This was a case of integrated schools in Embu west Sub-County, Kenya. The study adopted the Ex-post facto research design. Target population for the study was three hundred and one respondents who included: two head teachers, two S.N.E teachers, forty one pupils with physical disabilities and two hundred and fifty six non-disabled pupils. A sample of two hundred participants was drawn composed of one hundred fifty five pupils from standard five, six, seven and eight, two head teachers, two special needs teachers and forty one pupils with physical disabilities. The sample of non-disabled pupils was selected by use of stratified random sampling, while pupils with physical disabilities, teachers and head teachers were purposefully sampled. Three sets of questionnaires were used in the collection of data from the special needs teachers, pupils with physical disabilities and non-disabled pupils. An interview schedule was used to collect data from the head teachers. Pilot study was carried out at Embu urban primary school to determine reliability of the instruments. The following reliability indices were obtained; Questionnaire for pupils with disabilities obtained 0.81, questionnaire for none disabled obtained 0.74 while questionnaire for the teachers obtained 0.78. To determine validity of the instruments a pre-test was done during the pilot study they were then verified by the supervisors and other experts in the department of Psychology, Counseling and Educational Foundations from Laikipia University. Descriptive statistics which includes frequencies and percentages was used to present the study findings. The study found out that physical facilities and support services were inadequately provided and therefore pupils with physical facilities did not gain academically and socially from integrated education. The study concludes that physical facilities, support services and teacher behaviors in teaching highly affect integration of pupils with physical disabilities in public primary schools and that the inadequate facilities for pupils with physical disabilities is a barrier to integration. The study will benefit educational planners as it will be a reference to feed into their development plans of successful implementation of integrated education. The study therefore recommends that adequate physical facilities and support services should be provided to enhance integration. Regarding the training of the special needs education teachers, the ministry of Education should enhance further training of all the teachers in integrated schools in order to enhance and update their skills.