CHALLENGES FACING PROVISION OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION SERVICES IN

PRIMARY SCHOOLSWITHIN HAGADERA REFUGEE CAMP, DADAAB.

BY ELISHA OLANDO AFWATA

A RESEARCH CONCEPT PAPER IN EDUCATION PRESENTED TO KENYATTA

UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE REQUIREMENT OF THE

AWARD OF DEGREE IN BACHELOR OF EDUCATION

KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

DADAAB CAMPUS

@SEPTEMBER 2013

1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

“Education is an important investment that a country can make and

enhancing accessibility to educational services is significant in

the development of a nation (World Bank, 1993). This is because

education positively affects socio-economic behaviour such as

productivity, living standards, health and demographic

characteristics of any population. Likewise, it opens infinity of

possibilities for society that would otherwise be denied namely;

a better chance to lead healthy and productive lives, building

strong and nurturing families, participating fully in civic

affairs of their communities, molding morals and valve creating

culture and shaping history. It is a solid foundation for

progress and sustainable development, an inherent human rights

and critical step towards dismantling the gender discrimination

that threatens all other rights catalyzing freedom and democracy

within borders and extending its reach as an agent of

international peace and security (UNICEF, 2000). It’s therefore,

societal obligations to make the provision of education to all

people according to the nature of their individual’s needs and

capacity (Oketch, 1993). Adam Smith in his “Wealth of Nations”

written at the end of the 18th century and which was highly

acclaimed in Western Europe is quoted to have stated: “instructed

and intelligentpeople are always more decent and orderly than

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ignorant and stupid ones; they are more disposed to examine

situations and capable of seeing through the complains of

interested factions and sedition and they upon this account, are

less apt to be misled into wanton or unnecessary opposition to

the measures of government

(http:wealthoo.htm>content/wealth.htm). Along the same line of

reasoning, Diderot in the 18th century in France in support of

basic education is quoted to have written: “A peasant who knows

how to read and write is more difficult to oppress” , as cited by

Kaguire (2004).

The vitality of education to society was supported more by the

United Nations Declaration proclaiming the right to education for

all in 1948, subsequent to that, education ministers of African

region met in Addis Ababa in 1961 and resolved that there should

be Universal Primary Education (UPE) and the eradication of

illiteracy in Africa within twenty years (UNESCO, 1961).

Unfortunately, the serious political and economic setbacks in

Africa of the time deterred the implementation of the Addis Ababa

proclamation in the 1970s and 1980s and this caused deterioration

of education in many Third World Countries.

This is reaffirmed further, by the principle that education for

all is a societal objective, which cannot be allowed to shape its

course according to market mechanisms and that it is in effect a

target which can be achieved only through the united efforts of

partners in all schools (UNESCO (1990) backed up by the

proceeding United Nations Education Scientific Cultural Fund

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(UNESCO) report in 1998, which stated that the best way to deal

with CWDs was not putting them in special schools where they are

segregated, but to provide for them in the general community

where they are expected to take their places in adulthood.

It’s because of the significance of education, which explains why

nations worldwide allocate a lot of their resources even to the

disabled.

2.0 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Today, the debate about inclusive education has been lessened and

the society is trying to digest into the system the involvement

of the learners with special needs into the normal system of

education. They are also trying to fight to stigmatization in

order to create an opportunity for all in education. Despite all

these efforts there are still some challenges that affect

inclusive education in our society from international level to

local level.

It was expected that disabled children would meaningfully gain

access to all-inclusive education services. Regrettably, it has

not been realized as planned as clearly manifested by school

related challenges namely; the inappropriate curriculum and

teaching style, lack of instructional materials, limited numbers

of Special Needs Education (SNE) teachers to accommodate pupils

in their regular class room activities, unfriendly environment to

CWDs, discriminatory attitudes from teachers and fellow peers

which bar CWDs from obtaining an adequate education and

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opportunities for full social life. Economic factors like high

level of educational costs, house hold poverty, and high costs of

instructional materials and lack of mid-day meals for most

learners which curtails concentration for afternoon lessons. The

socio- cultural environment such as negative traditional

attitudes and practices, complacency among parents, lack of

acceptance and cruelty from peers, coupled with an inadequately

addressed policy environment like non –participation of all

stakeholders in policy formulation and implementation awareness

and ill –equipped policy intention, for instance ,have all

compounded the problem of access. In view of the above, there is

need to carry out a research in order to identify the problems

behind this low enrolment and also come up with remedies if CWDs

are to meaningfully benefit from all inclusive education services

provided for under refugee assistance program. This is the

motivation for the research and more so in Hagadera refugee camp

where only 270 CWDs are enrolled in primary schools.

1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to examine the challenges of

accessing all-inclusive education services by learners with

special needs.

The specific objectives will be:

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1. To investigate the socio-cultural factors that influences the

accessibility of learners with special needs to educational

services.

2. To examine how the economic factors affect access to the

educational needs of Learners with special needs.

3. To establish the extent to which school related factors

affects access to educational services by learners with special

needs.

4. To examine how the policy environment affects access to

educational service by learners with special needs.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. To what extent do the socio-cultural factors influence the

perception of the public towards the disabled in Dadaab?

2. What are the economic factors affecting access to education by

learners with special needs?

3. Which school related factors affect access of education by

learners with special needs?

4. Which are the existing policies that advocate for access of

education by learners with special needs?

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1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study is expected to add to the existing wealth of knowledge

on the challenges of accessing all inclusive education services

by learners with special needs. .

The study will contribute to a better understanding of the

factors that negatively influence the effective access of all

inclusive education services. It is also expected that the study

will help to raise awareness amongst all stakeholders, on matters

concerning access to children with disabilities.

Likewise, the study is expected to benefit educational planners

as it will be one of the reference points to feed into their

developmental plans to address the gaps in educational

provisioning. Furthermore, it shall be of interest to all public

and private educational providers that are involved in ensuring

equal opportunities especially to learners with special needs in

Dadaab. The study will be significant in the generation of

information that is to be fed into the current advocacy and

lobbying activities taken by various stakeholders aimed at

improving the study conditions of learners with special needs

under the acclaimed all-inclusive education services

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study will focus on primary schools where an all-inclusive

education services are being offered in Hagadera Refugee Camp. It

focuses on Upendo, Amani, Undugu and Central Primary Schools as

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this will enable the researcher compare the challenges of access

of educational services by different groups of learners with

special needs in the respective schools. The study focuses on the

problems being faced by learners with special needs in the

classroom situation and outside that affects their study which

include, socio-cultural factors like religious influences, lack

of acceptances and cruelty from peers, lack of interest among

parents of learners with special needs, economic factors like

household poverty, isolation, and lack of assistive aids and

appliances, physical factors like long distances to and from

school, and non-adoptive environment. It will further investigate

the possible mitigation measures by the education department of

implementing agencies LWF, UNHCR and various stakeholders.

1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The researcher envisages a number of limitations such as

inability of the respondents to adequately fill in the

questionnaires as required, the inadequacy of research

instruments to capture all the required information and failure

of some respondents to fill in the research instruments and

inherent weakness in the research design.

1.7 ASSUMPTION OF THE STUDY

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The research will basically proceed with several assumptions

mainly that the respondents will give correct information and

that the given information will be tandem with the situation of

inclusive education service provision in the schools.

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2.0 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Conceptually, all inclusive educational services to learners with

special needs should promote incorporation of socio –cultural,

policy, economic and school related factors. Recognizing that

these learners require efficient, effective and functional

instruction directed at achieving socially and educationally

valid outcomes, calls for application of a social service

delivery approach that can appropriately meet their needs in an

integrated setting, if higher proportions, rates and levels of

social cognitive, numeracy, literacy and linguistic skills are to

be achieved.

Thus the application of the systems approach to educational

management that involves thinking in terms of the whole problem

and its interacting subparts or components as well as

selecting ,implementing and monitoring the optimum alternative

sequences of the component parts in order to achieve the best

outcome for learners with special needs should be applied.

Emphasis should be on problem selection, identification of

requirements to problem solution, methods and means obtained and

implementation ,evaluation of results and revision to all or part

of the system so that the needs are eliminated (Kaufman,1972)

It’s pertinent that individual learner educational needs be

addressed as well as the school related environment. The

educational methods used by teachers should aim at promoting

children’sself-initiated learning with emphasis on

individualization of sessions in response to children’s

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characteristics, preferences, interests, abilities and health

status as well as curricula that are unbiased and

nondiscriminatory around issues of disabilities.

Likewise the school should maximize safety, health and promotion

of identified goals, barrier-free environments that promote a

high level of engagement, caring and sensitivity. Such a practice

will not only increase enrolment but shall ensure retention and

completion of the primary level of education. The systems

approach relies upon model building and the development of

conceptual frameworks to facilitate decision-making through

provision of a basis for sorting variables and showing

relationships between and among variables. Therefore for the

learners with special needs to benefit from all inclusive

educational services his/her needs should be recognized from the

family unit, responsive to the family attitude, priorities,

concerns, and needs. Educational services to the learner with

special needs must have flexibility, inclusion, expertise and

resources to meet the needs of other members of the family as

those needs relate to child development.

Below is the conceptual framework showing the interrelation

between various factors that may influence access to all

inclusive education services and can be addressed as a sum total

if all inclusive educational services are to benefit learners

with special needs.

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SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS

Traditional attitude and practices Religion

POLICY ENVIRONMENT Policy intentions Participationof all

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SOCIO-CULTURAL FACTORS

Traditional attitude and practices Religion

POLICY ENVIRONMENT Policy intentions Participationof all

From the above conceptual framework, several factors are at play

to the persisting challenges of accessing all inclusive

education. They were tackled from independent variables namely;

socio-cultural factors like parents‟ attitude, religion, parental

interest and attitudes and the policy environment all can be

explained as casual factors for the inadequate CWD access to

educational services.

Some of these factors are interlinked and depend on each other in

making access to all inclusive education a challenge these

included economic and school related, and policy. For instance,

the ineffective policy environment results into unfavorable

school based factors like non-committed teachers, inappropriate

curriculum, and poor distribution of schools, absence of

disability friendly facilities and establishment of day schools

which subjects the CWDS to long distances and insecurity as they

commute to and from school.

In addition to that, the economic factors interact with school

based factors. For instance poverty among the households and

ignorance result into parents not procuring the instructional

materials for their children and absence of disability friendly

facilities in school respectively thus makes access to all

inclusive education for CWDS a challenge. Similarly poverty at

the macro levels affects the budgetary allocation to the

education sector which in turn affects individual school or pupil

allocations

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2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

The following topics will be reviewed from both primary and

secondary sources:

i) The following relevant international documents will be discussed

1948: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

1982: UN The World Programme for Action Concerning Disabled Persons

1989: UN Convention on the Right of the Child

1990: The World Declaration on Education For All

1993: UN Standard Rules on Equalisation and Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities

1994: Salamanca Statement and Framework of Action on Special Needs Education

2000: World Education Forum (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals

2001: EFA Flagship: Education for persons with disabilities: Towards Inclusive

2007: UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

ii) Description of Dadaab refugee camp on socio cultural

factors inhibiting provision of provision of educational

services

iii) Policies in place within the implementing agencies in

implementing inclusive education services

iv) Challenges facing provision of inclusive education in

Hagadera primary schools in Hagadera including:

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The socio-cultural factors that influences the

accessibility of learners with special needs to

educational services.

The economic factors affect access to the

educational needs of Learners with special needs.

The extent to which school related factors affects

access to educational services by learners with

special needs.

The policy environment affects access to

educational service by learners with special

needs.

3.0 CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research design

The research design used in the study was non-experimental

descriptive survey. These types of design assist the researcher 15

to identify problems with current practices, justify current

practices making judgments or determining what others in similar

situation are doing (Waltz and Bausel 1981).

Descriptive survey helps one identify the relationship between

variables and obtain an overall pictures of phenomenon. It

protects the study against Bias through conceptual and

operations, definition of variable sample, selection, valid and

reliable instrument and data collection procedures that achieve

some environmental control.( burn and glove 1987).

Survey design in education is conducted to determine the status

gathering of facts rather than manipulation of variables. It is

because of such benefits to be used in this study

3.2 Research area

The area selected for the study is Hagadera area in Dadaab

refugee camp, Fafi in north eastern province. The areas belong

initially to Somali people who practice nomadic ways of life,

which is shifting from one place to another to look for greener

pasture and water for their animals. But it is now occupied by

Somali refugees who run away from Somalia. These people occupying

the area rely on food donations and they live in tents or semi-

permanent structures.

There are seven schools in the area, six occupied and one not

occupied. There are many big mosques because all the occupants of

this area are Muslims. There are also police station, referral

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hospital, health post and agency offices which serve the

refugees.

3.3 Data Collection Procedure

The researcher will seek relevant authority to gather data from

the respondents. Data will be collected through self-administered

semi-structured questionnaire and observation schedule; which

covers questions on knowledge, socio-demographic factors, aspects

of self-concept as well as aspects of academic performance. The

use of questionnaire will allow for comparison of results among

the respondents

3.4 Sample size and sampling technique

A sample is the number of items to be selected from the universe

or population for use in the population whose characteristics are

representative of the entire population (Kothari 23).

20 learners with special needs fromeach of the mainstream primary

school, 10 learners from each of the special units, 10 parent and

5 teachers from each school will be selected through simple

random sampling. Random sampling is whereby every person in the

entire population is being studied has an equal likelihood of

being selected (Sommer and sommer 1998:2260).

My decision to use random sampling method in the study is due to:

1. Each subject is given the chances to be included in the

study.

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2. It allows generalization of the population(sommer and

sommer1991)

3. There is reduced bias error and once the selected sample is

representative of the population thereby making the study

more reliable and valid (Burns and Grove 1987). It therefore

because of these advantages that I chose this method over

others.

3.6Piloting of Study Instruments

The data collection instruments were piloted in among 10.0% of

the study population that was not be included in the final study

findings. This process allowed for clearing ambiguity,

commissions and omissions in the instruments in order to enhance

their reliability and validity

3.7 Validity

Validity refers to the accuracy or truthfulness of the

measurement. It concerns if the questionnaire is measuring what

it is expected to measure. The researcher intends to submit the

instrument to two experts for options regarding its content

validity. For construct validity, the researcher will use a

confirmatory factor analysis to see if the various single items

contribute to the overall construct measurement

3.8 Reliability

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Reliability refers to aspect of stability and repeatability. It

concern if the measurement can give consistent result over time.

The researcher intends to use test retest method. This would be

reaffirmed by supervisory expertise advice.

3.9 Data Analysis and Presentation

On receiving the questionnaire from the respondents, the

instruments will be checked to ensure completeness, consistency,

accuracy, and uniformity. The data will then be coded and

tabulated to facilitate analysis. Scientific Package for Social

Scientists (SPSS) is the statistical package that was used for

analysis. Descriptive statistics such as percentages and

frequency distributions will used to transform obtained data into

information for relative comparison. Frequency tables were used

to present the findings. Qualitative data will be organized,

categorized and reported in prose.

3.10 Target population

According to Orodho (2002), target population consists of the

items of people under considerations in any field of inquiry

which is supported by Mugenda and Waudo (1999) who states that,

target population is the population which researchers would like

to generate the results. The population of this study consisted

of all learners with special needs in Hagadera Refugee camp

totaling to 1500 an approximation of 10% of all enrolled learners

in Hagadera

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3.11 Expected outcomes

The researcher expects that the study will adduce to the existing

socio-cultural factors, economic factors, school related factors

and policy implementation gap related factors as the impeding

challenges to realizing sufficient provision of inclusive

education to learners with special needs in Hagadera primary

schools

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