Challenges Encountered By Students with Visual Impairments and Teachers In An Integrated School Environment: A Case Of Integrated Secondary Schools In Kericho District, Ainamoi Division, Kenya (Published)
The government’s effort in dealing with access and equity in the provision of education and training to children with special needs has encountered numerous challenges some of which include; lack of clear guidelines on the policy implementation of integrated education, inadequate tools and skills in identification and assessment and lack of data of children with special needs among others. This paper sought to establish the challenges encountered by students and teachers in the integrated education program for students with visual impairments. The study was carried out in Kericho District adopting a case study design. Data collection was done by use of questionnaires, focus group discussion and document analysis. A total of 200 respondents participated in the study and data was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The study cited a number of challenges that are experienced by the visually impaired students such as; the administration view them as a burden to school and many times they do not meet their needs like providing the necessary learning materials even though they pay fees and academic performance significantly indicated the nature of evaluation among the students in these secondary schools was clear that they are conscious about the needs of others. The government, through the Ministry of Education should provide teaching / learning resources for the visually impaired and blind students. Training for all teachers on special education should be performed. Informative campaigns at the community level with emphasis on the fact that disability is not inability are also advocated for.
Keywords: Challenges, Integrated school environment., Students with visual Impairments., Teachers
THE EFFECT OF INTEGRATION ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE FOR STUDENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS: A CASE STUDY OF INTEGRATED SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KERICHO COUNTY, AINAMOI CONSTITUENCY, KENYA (Published)
Vision is ordinarily a very important source of information about the world, the ‘stuff’ on which cognition comes to operate. The provision of the low vision services in Kenya started in 1980s. Before then, all learners were educated as blind irrespective of their degree of vision loss. Christoffel Blinden Mission conducted a survey, which revealed that there was need to encourage children with low vision to use their sight, since they were using techniques for the blind. It was also discovered that 15-25% of the learners did not require special education services at all. This low vision services was first provided in the school for the blind students and then in the integrated schools. This paper thus sought to establish the effect on academic performance for visually impaired students brought about by this integration. To achieve this, the author considered carrying out a study in Kericho County. The study was done between September and November 2006 using a case study design. Questionnaires focus group discussion and document analysis were the main techniques used in data collection. A total of 200 respondents participated in the study and data was analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. It was found that an integrated education program has recorded better performance for students with visual impairment than in the specially designed schools for the visually impaired students as perceived by students. On average, it was observed that students with visual impairments perform better than their sighted counterparts.
Keywords: : Academic Performance, Effect, Integration, Students with visual Impairments.
