ATTITUDE TOWARDS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION AMONG PRESCHOOL AND PRIMARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS IN IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

The concept of inclusive education was proposed with the aim of solving the problem of segregating Children With Disability (CWD) into separate learning environment. The successful implementation of this concept in various communities may be affected by the willingness of school administrators to enroll CWD in their schools. Hence this study was conducted to investigate the attitude of preschool and primary school administrators in the cosmopolitan city of Ibadan, to inclusive education. This cross sectional study involved 87 preschool and primary school administrators. The Teacher’s Attitude Towards Inclusive Education Scale was used to assess the attitude of the administrators. A specially designed data gathering sheet was also used to record socio-demograhic information on the students and the schools the administrators had oversight of. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results revealed that CWD accounted for only about 1.0% of the total student population. Visual disability ranked the highest among those with disability (36%, n=43). Only 33.3% (n=29) of all the administrators had a positive attitude towards inclusive education and majority (n=84; 96.6%) indicated that CWD usually learn best in their special education class. The study concluded that majority of the preschool and primary school administrators had negative attitudes towards inclusive education. This may negatively affect the uptake of inclusive education in the area studied. It may therefore be necessary to put in place programs to ensure better understanding of the concept of inclusive education among preschool and primary school administrators in Ibadan North East local government area in Ibadan Nigeria.