ATTITUDES OF TUTORS TOWARDS INCLUSION OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES IN MAINSTREAM COLLEGES

 ACASE STUDY OF SHIMON, GGABA, KIBULI

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Background

The inclusion of children with disability into main stream education has been faced with resistance from the different key stake holders globally despite 82 UN member countries on 13 December 2006 recognizing the rights of children with disability to have equal access to education there has been a societal poor attitude of inclusion of children with Disability into mainstream education by educational key stake holders including the tutors, teachers, policy makers and the education institutions, Between 93 million and 150 million children live with a disability worldwide. The World Health Organization and the World Bank estimate that in some countries being disabled more than doubles the chance of never enrolling in school, an estimated one in three out-of-school children have a disability while even the few who enroll in schools the tutors view them as not worthy receiving formal education, A 2017 report in 19 middle- and low-income countries on inclusive education by the World Bank and GPE concluded that 3 in 10 children with disabilities have never enrolled in school globally and those who are lucky to enroll face discrimination and prejudice as the tutors do not engage them in sophisticated subjects (Fedulova et al., 2019).

The inclusion of children with disability into mainstream education therefore has by no doubt been an extremely failure in other parts of the world especially developing world like in Latin America and Africa. Since in most of these societies inclusion of children with disability has been specifically taken as a taboo and against the cultural norms. In Nigeria children with disability are specifically looked as bad luck and therefore they are not to be burdened with education. Some of the specific communities like the Igbo, whose culture, for instance, disability may be attributed to the wrath of the gods, in which case the person is killed or thrown into an evil forest to be devoured by wild animals (Carew et al., 2019).

Throughout Africa, less than 10% of children with a disability are enrolled in formal education and the few who are enrolled in schools face discrimination due to poor attitude by their tutors towards them.  In some countries only 13% receive any form of education. In Bangladesh, 30% of people with disabilities have completed primary school, compared to 48% of those without disabilities. In Zambia it is 43% compared to 57% and in Paraguay 56% to 72%. According to one estimate, 75% of children with disabilities in Afghanistan are out of school, while in South Africa, Africa’s most advanced economy, more than 500,000 children with disability are not included in schools (Lang et al.,2019).

In Nigeria, a country with the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, determining the percentage and the attitude of children with learning disabilities is next to impossible because official data is nonexistent and in this situation even assessing the attitude of tutors is a luxury since just being enrolled in formal education is a challenge. The national policy on education endorses inclusive and free education for people with special needs, but the government has yet to deliver on that commitment. Advocates are fighting to raise awareness about learning disorder but instructional materials on inclusive education are scarce and a lot needs to be done to sensitize teachers (Kisanji, 2019).

Disabled pupils require specialized training and teaching procedures designed to meet their unique learning needs, such as sign language for the deaf or braille for the blind. However, Nigeria’s educational system is not inclusive of children with special needs. For example, learning outcomes of disabled pupils are not tested in standard literacy assessment in the demographic and health surveys (DHS). The few special schools that exist are found to be socially dysfunctional and irrelevant to the total well-being of persons with disabilities (Simbaya, et al., 2019).

In Uganda the inclusion of children with disability into mainstream education has not been highly emphasized since disabled children require specific facilities that can enable them study. Most of the Academic institution lack the key facilities that are essential in fostering the learning of children with disability (Fennell et al., 2020).

Currently although there has been a significant improvement in the attitude of the community members towards the people with disability, majority of the students in colleges continue to perform poorly than their counter parts, they are also more likely to enroll in school late and leave earlier with fewer qualifications than other children. Estimates show that More than half (52.6%) of the pupils with disabilities are males. Out of 1,370,583 students enrolled in a secondary school in Uganda, 8,945 students (0.6%) have special learning needs. Visually impaired students comprise the largest share of these students, followed by those with physical disabilities, however these children continue to face a lot of discrimination from their tutors. More to that children with disability also have the highest failure rates in colleges than their counterparts with no physical disabilities.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Whereas there have been some efforts to implement an inclusive education system to take care of all groups in the country, by and large inclusive education remains to be expressed in policy documents but with little to show on the ground since most of the communities members and teachers’ in Uganda still view students with disability as society misfits and therefore cannot be burdened with responsibility of studying. The Uganda Human Rights Commission, in its 2009 analysis of the government’s inclusive education policy, aptly captured the current state of Uganda’s students’ with disability indicating that the attitude of tutors to disabled students needs to be questioned. According to the report the inclusive education policy whose main goal is to ensure that all students have the right to education irrespective of whether one is disabled or not indicates the Government’s commitment to provide education to all students irrespective of their origin, social group, gender and their level of disability. It emphasizes offering quality education to all students irrespective of their state of disability in all levels of learning. However, the policy of inclusive education does not elaborate what inclusion and, has not engaged with the community members on means with regard to students with disabilities on different appropriate  that have to made to train professional teachers in viewing students with disability as having potential for academic success (UHRC, 2009). According to the report by Shimon core P.T.C , (2017) It has been revealed that half of all the students with disability failed to get the pass mark in all subjects requirement for their completion of their studies as trained teachers in colleges. According to the Uganda Human Rights Commission report: The number of students’ with disability at college level have higher chances of failing exams than their counter parts.

The Shimon core P.T.C report, (2017) also notes a there has been reported cases of students with disability showing dislike of  studies as this has been indicated by the number of students dropping out of school , this there warrants examining attitudes of tutors towards inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream colleges.

1.3 Purpose of the study

The main purpose of the study is to examine the attitudes of tutors towards inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream colleges.

• Objectives of the study

1. To examine the influence of tutors cognitive attitude on inclusive education in P.T.Cs.
2. The relationship between tutors’ affective attitude on inclusive education in P.T.Cs.

• To determine the influence of evaluative attitude on inclusive education in P.T.Cs

1.5 Research questions of the study

1. What is the influence of tutors’ cognitive attitude on inclusive education in P.T.Cs?
2. What is the relationship between tutors’ affective attitude on inclusive education in P.T.Cs?

• What is the influence of evaluative attitude on inclusive education in P.T.Cs?

1.7 Conceptual frame work

Attitudes of Tutors’                                                          Inclusive Education

Intervening Variables